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October 13, 2006
Hometown donations
One of strengths of the American political process is its transparency. Because law requires that candidates who run for public office disclose the sources of their donations, we can get an accurate picture of who's giving the money to support a candidate's campaign. Since neither candidate has a voting record, this may be a valuable way to understanding what (and whom) the candidate represents.
In the case of the race for House District 64 (Franke Wilmer-D and Jim Klug-R), the contributors to these campaigns paint very different pictures.
Jim Klug received 65 cash contributors (as of May 25) for his election campaign for a total of $8,245. Half of the people who made these donations are contractors, realtors, developers, their employees and families. And 65 percent of the people in this group who gave money to the Klug campaign are from out of state, most of whom gave the maximum amount allowed by law.
Franke Wilmer received 98 cash contributions (as of May 25) for her election campaign for a total of $5,986. Half of all the people who made these donations are people in K-12 and higher education. Less than 6 percent of the people in this group who gave money to the Wilmer campaign are from out of state.
The obvious question for voters in House District 64 is "Which person reflects the values I care about?" People who donate to campaigns expect that their candidates will vote in ways that favor their interests. Do we, the people of House District 64, want to be represented by the interests of contractors, realtors and developers, many of whom are from out of state? Or do we want to be represented by people in education, the overwhelming majority of which are local?
Ada Giusti
Bozeman
Posted by admin at October 13, 2006 12:56 PM