ActBlue's Response Shows Better Record

By Jonathan Allen | September 14, 2009 5:08 PM | | Comments (0)

In a post earlier today concerning the Democratic activist group ActBlue, I used numbers that require a clarification.

In that piece, I noted that candidates who receive the most campaign money through that Web-based contribution conduit often lose their elections. This conclusion was based on numbers available on ActBlue's candidate directory. The point of the piece was that South Carolina Democrat Rob Miller will need more than just money to beat Republican Rep. Joe "You Lie!" Wilson -- though, of course, money is a essential for viability, which no doubt is at least part of ActBlue's raison d'etre.

But a response from ActBlue -- which includes its internal numbers for candidates, some of which cannot be found through a routine search of their data -- provides a different picture.

I focused on House candidates because single sources of donations are generally more important in their smaller-dollar races than in big-money Senate and presidential campaigns. For example, the $1 million that flowed through ActBlue to Barack Obama's presidential campaign, important as it was to those who gave, probably didn't put the 2008 Democratic nominee over the top.

In fairness, here's ActBlue's list of its top 20 races in 2008, of which 12 of the candidates supported by the group won. Each entry shows the candidate's name, office sought, election outcome and the amount raised through ActBlue. The numbers vary in some cases from what is reported on ActBlue's Web site.

  • John Edwards (Presidential nomination -- Lost): $4,136,518.67
  • Kay Hagan (North Carolina Senate -- WON): $2,433,543.55
  • Rick Noriega (Texas Senate -- Lost): $1,798,743.98
  • Jim Martin (Georgia Senate -- Lost): $1,708,812.78
  • Mark Warner (Virginia Senate -- WON): $1,368,333.13
  • Dan Seals (Illinois' 10th District -- Lost): $1,103,181.09
  • Barack Obama (President --WON): $1,068,305.87
  • Joe Sestak (Pennsylvania's 7th District -- WON): $1,027,375.74
  • Darcy Burner (Washington's 8th District -- Lost): $764,796.65
  • Chellie Pingree (Maine's 1st District -- WON): $734,430.77
  • Scott Kleeb (Nebraska Senate -- Lost): $733,965.75
  • Eric Massa (New York's 29th District -- WON): $726,732.32
  • Gary Peters (Michigan's 9th District -- WON): $707,713.65
  • Martin Heinrich (New Mexico's 1st District -- WON): $663,681.31
  • Bob Lord (Arizona's 3rd District -- Lost): $600,097.26
  • Steve Novick (Oregon Senate primary -- Lost): $542,144.71
  • Jeff Merkley (Oregon Senate -- WON): $536,619.52
  • Jared Polis (Colorado's 2nd District -- WON): $514,876.42
  • Al Franken (Minnesota Senate -- WON): $509,006.34
  • Mark Schauer (Michigan's 7th District -- WON: $491,680.04

Adrian Arroyo of ActBlue said in an e-mail that a user-interface issue prevents all of the candidates from showing up when a search on House candidates in the 2008 cycle is performed.

My apologies to ActBlue.

More from CQ Politics

Tags: Burner, Edwards, Franken, Hagen, Heinrich, Kleeb, Lord, Martin, Massa, Merkley, Miller, Money, Noriega, Novick, Peters, Pingree, Polis, Schauer, Seals, Sestak, Warner, Wilson

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