Money talking

What could you do with a million dollars?

Running for Congress may not be the first answer that comes to mind, but the quarterly campaign disclosure reports show quite a few Minnesota candidates ready to spend more than a million on their campaigns. Want to know who has how much and where it’s coming from? Read on.

Federal candidates are required to file quarterly contributions reports with the Federal Election Commission. (State legislative candidates file with the Minnesota Campaign Finance Board.) Congressional candidate reports can be found at the FEC Web Site, as can Senate candidate reports. Expenditures in the Senate race already top $20 million, with more than three months to go.

Open Secrets has easy lists of all congressional candidates and contribution totals. The site analyzes where the money comes from (e.g., PACs, individuals, candidate self-financing), lists top contributors, and analyzes contributions by industry and interest group.

Follow the Money looks at how much individuals and industries are contributing to state-level candidates. Click on Minnesota to see stats for state-level candidates, parties and party organizations. For example, the House DFL Caucus raised $656,668 in 2007, and the Republican House Caucus raised $1,245,482. Dig deeper into the data, and find the top contributors to each party, and money raised by each legislative candidate.

The Third District, the only seat without an incumbent running for re-election, the contest is likely to be the most expensive race in the state. DFL candidate Ashwin Madia, raised $693,000 in the second quarter. Republican Erik Paulsen ended the second quarter with $1.1 million in cash on hand, having raised more than $600,000 in the second quarter, according to the Minnesota Independent.

In the First Congressional District, DFL incumbent Tim Walz raised $430,000 in the second quarter, ending up with $1.2 million cash in hand. Challenger Brian Davis raised $291,000 during the quarter, and loaned his campaign $100,000.

In the Second District, Republican incumbent John Kline, raised $241,000 and ended the second quarter with nearly $650,000 on hand. Second District DFL challenger Steve Sarvi raised $145,000 in the second quarter, but had only $95,000 on hand at the end of June. That’s better than his first-quarter total of $95,000, but still far short of Kline’s totals.

In the Sixth District, Republican incumbent Michelle Bachman filed late, but far outpaced DFL challenger Elwyn Tinklenberg. Bachmann had more than a million dollars at the end of March, while Tinklenberg raised $272,000 in the second quarter and had only $225,000 in cash at the end of June.

In the remaining four districts, the DFL incumbents have pretty secure seats—Betty McCollum in the Fourth District, Keith Ellison in the Fifth District, Collin Peterson in the Seventh District, and James Oberstar in the Eighth District.