Who donates to Alabama’s incumbents? Mostly PACs

While Alabama’s Second Congressional District remains a potential battleground in November’s election, the other six districts in the state all have incumbents who are heavily favored to win re-election. (A partial exception is Congressman Barry Moore, who currently represents the 2nd District, but successfully primaried Jerry Carl and is running to represent the 1st District rather than the redrawn 2nd).

With none of these incumbents about to face any real competition on November 5th, the pressure to raise money for ads, paid canvassing, etc. is significantly diminished. Even the most successful incumbent fundraiser, Democratic Congresswoman Terri Sewell, received just over $365,000 in third quarter contributions: a somewhat small haul in comparison to the over $1.6 million raised by the two major candidates battling to represent the 2nd District.

Sewell’s status as the most successful fundraiser out of the six incumbents is not due to any remarkable success raising money from individual donors though. Like most of her fellow incumbents, the majority of her donations this past quarter came from political action committees, or PACs.

At a glance, the names of the PACs supporting the six incumbents and a list of Fortune 500 companies are not all that dissimilar. 

PACs representing Koch Industries, Tyson Foods, Verizon Communications, AT&T, Rolls Royce North America, and UPS, among others, are all listed among the contributors to incumbent campaigns (some have donated several times).

Even Sewell, Alabama’s only Democratic incumbent, has received fairly sizable donations from PACs managed by major conglomerates like Exxon Mobil ($5,000), The Carlyle Group ($2,500), and Tyson Foods ($1,000) in the past few months.

All told, only just over 40 percent of the money received by incumbents in the third quarter was from individual donations. 59 percent was from PACs, although Barry Moore and Mike Rogers both bucked the trend and received more money from individual donors than from PACs.

Just how much each of Alabama’s incumbent members of Congress running for re-election received from individuals and PACs in July, August, and September can be seen below.

Congressman Gary Palmer: $99,344.38 in total contributions

• Individual donations: $34,844.38 (35 percent)
• PACs: $65,500 (65 percent)

Congressman Barry Moore: $113,798.35 in total contributions

• Individual donations: $64,467.62 (57 percent)
• PACs: $49,330.73 (43 percent)

Congressman Dale Strong: $133,448.29 in total contributions

• Individual donations: $63,148.29 (47 percent)
• PACs: $70,300 (53 percent)

Congressman Robert Aderholt: $237,983.89 in total contributions

• Individual donations: $97,283.89 (41 percent)
• PACs: $140,700 (59 percent)

Congressman Mike Rogers: $267,593.07 in total contributions

• Individual donations: $147,593.06 (55 percent)
• Political Party Committees: $4,000 (1.5 percent)
• PACs: $116,000.01 (43 percent)

Congresswoman Terri Sewell: $365,139.63 in total contributions

• Individual donations: $86,139.63 (24 percent)
• PACs: $279,000 (76 percent)

However, even the roughly 40 percent of donations from individuals are seemingly skewed towards representing businesses. Counting repeat donors to a single campaign only once, and not weighting by the amount donated, the most common type of occupation for a donor to Republican incumbents is CEO, executive, founder, entrepreneur, business owner, or president (with over 80 examples).

The second most common job for a Republican donor, with 19 examples, is attorney. Other common occupations included consultant, homemaker, physician, real estate, vice president, and various management positions.

CEO, consultant, lawyer and other management positions are also among the most popular occupations for individual donors to Sewell’s campaign. She did receive the only donations from a teacher, an organist, and an electrician however.