PACs = Please Accept Cash

The mid-term elections are only a little over a month away. Political ads are in full swing, yard signs have taken over front lawns, and campaign polls dominate the local eleven o'clock news. As I was clicking through channels between classes the other day, I came across an ad for Joe Courtney, the Democratic incumbent for Connecticut's second district. I then began thinking, who pays for the air time for those ads? And who provides campaign signs? The fact is that interest groups play an enormous part in the course of a campaign, especially Political Action Committees (PACs). PACs are private groups that organize to help elect candidates who advance important issues of that specific PAC. 

          http://www.opensecrets.org/races/summary.php?cycle=2010&id=MN03

For Erik Paulsen, PACs have been extremely generous to him. For the 2010 campaign 484 PACs have contributed to the Paulsen campaign totaling in $694,986. Most of the PACs providing funding are coming from the finance, insurance, and real estate industries.Considering Paulsen serves on the Congressional subcommittee on Financial Institutions and Consumer Credit, this is anticipated. Both New York Life Insurance and PricewaterhouseCoopers, a large accounting firm, have each provided $10,000 and are a couple of the top contributing PACs for Paulsen's campaign.

Jim Meffert is without a doubt struggling in raising money for his campaign. Meffert only has $20,000 in PAC contributions. Half of that has come from the American Optometric Association. This is not surprisingly considering Meffert served as the Executive Director of the Minnesota Optometric Association. As a result of Meffert's low campaign budget he has only been able to afford wed ads on YouTube. Below is my favorite Meffert campaign ad that was funded by political action committee Friends of Jim Meffert.

Advantages of an Elephant and (maybe) a Donkey

It is overtly obvious that two major political parties dominate contemporary politics in the United States, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. Both political parties have fundamental platforms that endorsed candidates tend to abide to; the Republican Party being considered generally conservative and right of the political spectrum while the Democratic Party is considered more liberal and left of the political spectrum. Political parties play a significant role in a congressional race due to monetary aid and endorsements by prominent party members.

Erik Paulsen, the incumbent for Minnesota's Third Congressional District, is a member of the Republican Party and naturally Paulsen's challenger, Jim Meffert, is a member of the Democratic Party. So far in 2010, Paulsen's campaign has raised an astonishing $1,991,726! A majority of those funds have come from individual and PAC contributions. The top Paulsen contributors include major businesses of Minnesota including Target Corp. and TCF Financial. Paulsen has supported continuing tax cuts passed by President Bush and has opposed the health care bill passed by current President Obama; a prime example of a Republican candidate platform.

On the contrary, Meffert has only managed to raise $230,900, a fraction of the Paulsen campaign. In support of Obama's health care bill and running on an unmistakable Democratic platform, Meffert stated on his website, "This bill is a first step towards achieving universal and affordable health care as a right, not a privilege". The Democratic Party, however, has failed to find substantial endorsements for their candidate resulting in fewer funds and a reduced amount of support.

Could Meffert lose this campaign because of his party's lack of financial backing and endorsements?



"Paulsen Outraises Meffert Nine to One"

Third Congressional District of MN - Campaign Finance Data    

Actions Speak Louder Than Words

The state of Minnesota held its Primary Election for 2010 on August 10^th through its Caucus system. In its third district however, both the Republican and Democrat candidates ran uncontested making for an uneventful evening. Even though the Republican candidate and incumbent, Erik Paulsen, is strongly favored to win back the office I strongly believe that Paulsen's leadership is not best for the people of Minnesota at this time.

After observing the campaign sites for both of the candidates I made these observations:

Jim Meffert, the DFL candidate for the third district is making large strides in improving the health care system in Minnesota. Not only has he worked extensively to bring down health care costs, but he has also worked to expand its access. For example, Meffert has worked as the executive director at the Minnesota Optometric Association where he ensured that everyone had access to eye care. He has also served on multiple education boards where he has fought to advance the funding and availability for public schools. Below is a video of Jim Meffert in an interview about the work that he has done.

On Erik Paulsen's campaign site it states that he has been a member of the House Financial Services Committee, the House Medical Technology Caucus, and has worked to give education and benefits to military personnel and their families. In reading this nothing really stands out to me. Paulsen does not seem to have accomplished anything substantial in his last two years in office.



Links to campaign sites:
Congressman Erik Paulsen
Jim Meffert for Congress 

Things Every Political Science Major Should Know

On the first day of my Congressional Elections Writing Seminar our professor asked us to answer the following questions:

1) What congressional district are you from?
2) Who is your member of Congress?
3) How did he/she vote on healthcare reform?

Being a political science major in my senior year, I can honestly say that I was semi-embarrassed when I could not manage to write down anything on the paper in front of me. After realizing I needed to do some research for the upcoming elections I decided to follow the congressional elections happening in my home state of Minnesota; more specifically the third congressional district which includes the western suburbs of the Twin Cities.

The third congressional district of Minnesota encompasses some of the more affluent suburbs of Minneapolis. Currently, the district is represented by Republican Erik Paulsen. Serving the third district since 2008 and also the favorite to win the 2010 election, Paulsen opposes the privatization of Social Security and has pushed for lowering the prices of prescription drugs for senior citizens. When it comes to healthcare Paulsen supports increasing deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums. This is not something that I personally would like to see happen to the residents of the third district. Instead the DFL candidate Jim Meffert has supported the recently passed healthcare bill. Because of that I believe that Jim Meffert would be a better candidate for the people of Minnesota.