It’s no secret the Democratic Party, its candidates, and its soft money groups are flush with cash.  The stats on candidate fundraising further confirm that the Democratic Party is the party of special interests.  Below is a chart of the top ten candidates who raised the most money.  Interestingly enough, the top fundraiser of 2012 was Governor Hickenlooper who isn’t up for re-election until 2014.  He raised over $531,000 and spent over half, mostly on meals/travel, consultant expenses, and printing.

It’s also worth noting that Republicans occupy just three of the ten spots in the top ten.  While Republicans comprise 33% of the top ten slots, it’s worth noting that Republicans’ haul was just 25% of the total fundraising of the top ten, as visually demonstrated below.

 

Perhaps these stats would be mock-worthy if the majority of the fundraising on the left didn’t come from special interest groups like unions.  Take for example number two, State Senator Evie Hudak.  Throughout her career, she’s taken nearly $300,000 from “lawyers and lobbyists” and nearly $200,000 from public sector unions (nevermind the rest of the unions), according to FollowtheMoney.org.

Then, there is ethically-challenged Sen. Linda Newell, who apparently never met a special interest she didn’t love.  Here is a chart from Follow the Money of Linda Newell’s top donors, the first three of which include labor unions, government agencies, and lawyers/lobbyists.

Linda Newell’s 2012 Fundraising by Industry, accordint to Follow the Money

Kagan is largely self-funded, but that’s ok right?  Not exactly.  Kagan has reaped the benefits of his family’s wealth that accrued to him via tax fraud and cashing out his family’s business.  Then, we come to Andy Kerr, whose fundraising looks a lot like Linda Newell’s fundraising – unions, lobbyists, and government agencies.

Andy Kerr’s special interests look a lot like Newell’s donors

And then there is Pete Lee…oh, why even bother, his is the same specical-interest bloated campaign finance reports turned in by Kerr and Newell.  If it wasn’t so disgusting, it would almost be mundane.  Throw losing Democratic candidate Crestina Martinez into the pile with these folks.

Look, we admire the tenacity and prowess these candidates – Democrat and Rrepublican – have shown in this race.  We just wish that the special interest heavy campaign finance reports didn’t result in such poor legislation, favoring Democratic donors.