INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -
A small group of big-money donors is playing hard in the 2014 elections,
even if none of the contests carry quite the same marquee names as just two
years earlier.
Campaign finance
data collected by the state show that more than $35 million has been given
to candidates and campaign committees so far this year. Of that amount, more
than $13 million has come from single donations of at least $10,000.
The amount of
spending thus far is light by Indiana standards and reflects a relatively
dormant election cycle. The top races on the ballot are for secretary of
state, treasurer and auditor, a situation that occurs every 12 years.
Still, major donors
have found outlets for their money.
Most of the money
has gone to legislative races as House Republicans look to hold on to a
supermajority they obtained in 2012 and Senate Republicans, who have long
outnumbered Democrats, look to build on their 37-13 lead.
Northwest Indiana
hotel tycoon Dean White has accounted for $1.3 million alone, including
three donations of $250,000 each to Republican Gov. Mike Pence, the House
Republican campaign committee and Republican House Speaker Brian Bosma.
Pence isn’t up for re-election until 2016 but has been flirting with the
idea of a White House run.
House Democrats
have benefited from a $250,000 donation from the Teamsters union and
$175,000 from the Union of Painters and Allied Trades. Other major donations
have been funneled from Wal-Mart fortune heiress Alice Walton and through
conservative education groups to conservative candidates.
Candidates from
both parties have often relied on a handful of large donors over the years,
said Andy Downs, director of the Mike Downs Center for Indiana Politics at
Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne.
Christian
conservative activist Eric Miller collected $570,000 from northern Indiana
RV executive Mahlon Miller in his failed run against former Gov. Mitch
Daniels in 2004. Democrats, Down notes, have been able to historically rely
on the Simon family and their fortune made in shopping malls, for major
donations. In the same election, Bren Simon cut a single check for $1.3
million to Democrat Joe Andrew’s campaign for governor. A few weeks later
she was picked as his running mate.
Because Indiana law
allows for unlimited contributions from individuals, it also allows for a
certain level of transparency, Downs said. Voters can look up donations
through a state database.
The spending so far
hasn’t translated into a flood of campaign ads.
The Center for
Public Integrity found that Indiana candidates had spent $342,200 on
advertising on Indiana broadcast networks through September. House Education
Chairman Robert Behning, R-Indianapolis, spent the most of any candidate,
$139,500, to fend off a union-backed challenger in the May primary.
The nonpartisan
center reviewed data about political advertising on national cable and
broadcast television in all of the country’s 210 media markets. The
organization used research from Kantar Media/CMAG, which tracks political
advertising and offers a widely accepted estimate of the money spent to air
each spot.
The figures paint
only a partial picture because they don’t include money spent on ads on
radio, online and direct mail, as well as television ads on local cable
systems, or the cost of producing the messages.
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