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Who Owns Congress? A Campaign Cash Seating Chart

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  • #1

    Who Owns Congress? A Campaign Cash Seating Chart

    via The Big Picture

    http://motherjones.com/politics/2010...orate-sponsors
    What if members of Congress were seated not by party but according to their major business sponsors? We gave it a try.
    — By Dave Gilson

    All charts are based on federal election data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. Visit the Center for Responsive Politics at OpenSecrets.org.

    Corporate donations include money given by companies' employees and political action committees, unless noted otherwise. Counting employees as corporate donors isn't perfect: You may not give to a candidate with your employer's interests in mind. Yet excluding individual contributions would overlook "bundled" gifts from a company's employees as well as gifts from executives and their families.

    The Senate: Lawyers, Drugs, and Money


    The Senate

    SECTOR | # OF MEMBERS
    Finance, insurance, and real estate 57
    Lawyers and lobbyists 25
    Health 5
    Agribusiness 3
    Labor 2
    Energy and natural resources 2
    Miscellaneous business 2
    Communications and electronics 1
    No money raised 3
    Total seats | 100


    The House: Big Labor vs. Big Money


    The House

    SECTOR | # OF MEMBERS
    Labor 159
    Finance, insurance, and real estate 159
    Health 26
    Agribusiness 23
    Lawyers and lobbyists 20
    Miscellaneous business 18
    Energy and natural resources 10
    Defense 7
    Transportation 6
    Communications and electronics 4
    Construction 1
    Unfilled seats 2
    Total seats | 435
    Attached Files
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Re: Who Owns Congress? A Campaign Cash Seating Chart

    Senate: Finance, insurance, and real estate 57 of 100
    There's your trouble.

    Comment

    • #3
      Re: Who Owns Congress? A Campaign Cash Seating Chart

      Thanks for posting this. Really telling chart.

      Comment

      • #4
        Re: Who Owns Congress? A Campaign Cash Seating Chart

        Great chart, thanks for posting. And as has been noted elsewhere, it takes only a handful of committee chairmen, often the same guy on multiple committees, to centrally control the process even more.

        Today's NY Times headline is as good a primer as any on our neo-liberal "two-party" system:

        Obama Strains to Get Liberals Back Into Fold Ahead of Vote

        By PETER BAKER

        Without offering regrets for policy choices that have angered liberals, President Obama is arguing that the Republicans are far worse.

        http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/us...a.html?_r=1&hp

        Comment

        • #5
          Re: Who Owns Congress? A Campaign Cash Seating Chart

          anyone know if there is a chart like this for Canadian Federal Politics?

          Comment

          • #6
            Re: Who Owns Congress? A Campaign Cash Seating Chart

            It is a cute chart, but doesn't quite encapsulate the reality.

            A more useful one would be a pie chart for each seat. Health, for example, is a large contributor across the spectrum - just not quite as large in individual cases as FIRE.

            The lawyer and lobbyist category is also misleading - lobbying for who? Lawyering over what?

            Some of the lawyers are no doubt tort or corporate, but no doubt at least a few are malpractice related.

            Comment

            • #7
              Re: Who Owns Congress? A Campaign Cash Seating Chart

              I dunno c1lue .. I don't think special interest money can be that targeted. I don't think you can buy specific votes.

              You just generally throw money at them and they know that if they piss you off too much, you'll stop giving them money.

              Comment

              • #8
                Re: Who Owns Congress? A Campaign Cash Seating Chart

                Originally posted by blazespinnaker View Post
                I dunno c1lue .. I don't think special interest money can be that targeted. I don't think you can buy specific votes.

                You just generally throw money at them and they know that if they piss you off too much, you'll stop giving them money.
                Doesn't the money have to delivered in the form of campaign contributions? In which case does in not then have to be given to individual politicians campaign organizations? Or do the USA laws prescribe that contributions have to be only to the Party, and the Party then determines the allocation of those funds?

                Comment

                • #9
                  Re: Who Owns Congress? A Campaign Cash Seating Chart

                  After reading David Zirin's Bad Sports, I'm convinced the quid pro quo has gotten so out of hand that votes on bills in the US congress are being blatantly sold with a belief that if you catch me, produce the emails, show proof, nothing is going to happen.

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    Re: Who Owns Congress? A Campaign Cash Seating Chart

                    Originally posted by GRG55 View Post
                    Doesn't the money have to delivered in the form of campaign contributions? In which case does in not then have to be given to individual politicians campaign organizations? Or do the USA laws prescribe that contributions have to be only to the Party, and the Party then determines the allocation of those funds?
                    I think donations can be made to both party and candidate. But to what degree I don't know.
                    Perhaps this sheds some light

                    http://www.opensecrets.org/overview/...mographics.php

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