Ember Reichgott Junge’s “momentum” aided by Republican funders
An in-depth analysis of Ember Reichgott Junge’s July 15 FEC disclosure reveals that Junge is funded by twenty-five donors who have no or little history giving to Democratic candidates. These donors have collectively contributed $233,400 since 2000 to Republican candidates, committees and PACs.
The recipients of these funds range from Mark Kennedy ($29,600) to George W. Bush ($13,500). Even the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the committee “devoted to increasing the number of Republicans in Congress” has benefited ($18,600) from the same donors who are backing Junge.
Other candidates who received contributions are Tom Delay, Rick Santorum, Norm Coleman, John Kline, Ted Stevens and Roy Blunt.
Other committees and PACs who were given donations are the MNGOP, Minnesotans for a Republican Congress Committee, the Rally for Leadership Fund (John Kline), Club for Growth, Every Republican is Crucial PAC and the Majority Initiative to Keep Electing Republicans.
This analysis raises important questions regarding Junge’s campaign:
- Why are these donors who have supported Republicans nationwide for years suddenly supporting Junge?
- How were these donors contacted?
- What did Junge or her campaign say to convince these Republican donors to become Junge’s cash constituents?
An Excel spreadsheet summarizing the contributions can be found here.
A Word document that includes important additional commentary on the data can be found here.
Please read both documents before contacting me or commenting on the post.
UPDATE: MNCR weighs in with his analysis.
August 21st, 2006 at 6:29 am
[…] Noah Kunin at Blanked Out has done the grunt work on this one, and props to him for the research that went into it. […]
August 21st, 2006 at 8:27 am
[…] But who is the GOP candidate? Surprise–it’s white Christian Ember Reichgott Junge: An in-depth analysis of Ember Reichgott Junge’s July 15 FEC disclosure reveals that Junge is funded by twenty-five donors who have no or little history giving to Democratic candidates. These donors have collectively contributed $233,400 since 2000 to Republican candidates, committees and PACs. […]
August 21st, 2006 at 8:30 am
[…] But who is the GOP candidate? Surprise–it’s white Christian Ember Reichgott Junge: An in-depth analysis of Ember Reichgott Junge’s July 15 FEC disclosure reveals that Junge is funded by twenty-five donors who have no or little history giving to Democratic candidates. These donors have collectively contributed $233,400 since 2000 to Republican candidates, committees and PACs. The recipients of these funds range from Mark Kennedy ($29,600) to George W. Bush ($13,500). Even the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC), the committee “devoted to increasing the number of Republicans in Congress” has benefited ($18,600) from the same donors who are backing Junge. […]
August 21st, 2006 at 10:42 am
Dude, you’re on polinaut. Hollah!
http://www.publicradio.org/columns/minnesota/polinaut/archive/2006/08/the_daily_diges_29.php
August 21st, 2006 at 11:03 am
Hollah indeed.
August 21st, 2006 at 11:45 am
Good job. I’ve further explored your work in “Digging Up the Dung Flung to Junge.”
http://greatdivide.typepad.com/across_the_great_divide/2006/08/digging_up_the_.html
August 21st, 2006 at 1:13 pm
Thanks Charlie!
Looks like from Charlie’s post we both went to Step 2 in the investigation in a similar fashion. However I have uncovered additional information on Junge’s website that Charlie does not mention.
August 21st, 2006 at 3:07 pm
Ember has received money from more than 27 people.
I did the math and only 8% of Embers money came from “large republican donors.”
For example, with a little research, you may find that one Kent Larson, the one who according to the Exel spreadsheet had given $600 to Ember and $250 to Republicans, also Gave 250 to Kerry-Edwards and worked at the same law firm as Ember (FEC.gov).
Dorothy Dolphin has giving to republicans and democrats. From the RPM to the DFL. From Mark Kennedy to Bill Luther. (Fec.gov)
In fact, if you subtracted the total “republican” contributions to her campaign, Ember would still have raised more money than any other DFL candidate by $40,000. (Fec.gov and basic math skills)
So if DFL donors want to give more money to Ember than to any other candidate, I say kudos. If having a broad base of support beyond her own ward or district or boss’s Rolodex is a bad thing, then maybe this argument would have merit.
August 21st, 2006 at 3:39 pm
[…] With all the talk today (here, here, here, here, and here) about Ember’s campaign in the 5th, I thought I’d post a letter I recieved from one of my friends. […]
August 21st, 2006 at 4:18 pm
Erich:
You make a good point, which supports my analysis.
Ember has extremely strong financial support from Minnesotan Democrats.
Enough that even without the Republican donors, she’s still ahead.
If she had plenty of money for her campaign, why did she solicit this additional money from Republicans?
The answer? Charter schools.
August 22nd, 2006 at 9:32 am
After decades of my political observations and participation, does this surprise me? No. But what offers hope is that young men and women are willing to do the grinding work necessary to discover and reveal this information. They take the risks to keep the public from being
blanked out.
Thank you, sir.
September 27th, 2007 at 8:09 am
[…] us in the 5th? Until recently, not much of anywhere. Luckily Noah over at blanked-out has done some legwork. Noah sifted through Ember’s FEC filing data and discovered a staggering number of donors to […]