FEC reveals 9th Congressional District campaign fund data

The Federal Election Commission recently released data about campaign funds for the Nov. 2 election, revealing contributors’ spending throughout the season.

Republican congressman-elect Todd Young and incumbent Rep. Baron Hill D-9th District each spent about $2 million on the 2010 midterm campaign. Libertarian Greg Knott spent about $6,000.

Young raised $1.96 million and spent $1.95 million on his successful campaign, according to the FEC. Hill raised $2.17 million and spent $2.14 million. Knott raised $6,093 and spent $6,007.

“That’s probably about typical for a competitive Congressional District,” Gerald Wright, IU political science professor, said.

He said usually the incumbent or candidate who spends the most money has an advantage in elections but that the difference in spending during the 9th District race was not very significant.

The challenger must work harder to be recognized, Wright said.

“Just the ability to raise money is taken by the national party and others as how serious they are,” he said, referring to non-incumbent fundraising.

Nearly all of Young’s contributions — $1.73 million — came from individual donations. Political action committees gave $220,829, and $7,711 came from other sources, according to the FEC. No contributions from the Republican Party were reported.

Most of Hill’s money — $1.17 million — was donated by political action committees. He received $889,915 in individual contributions and $18,379 from the Democratic Party. The remaining $93,747 came from other sources, according to the FEC.

In addition to $890 of individual donations, Knott spent $5,203 of his own money on his campaign, according to the FEC.

IU senior Rachelle Fullam said the money spent on this campaign could have been put to better use.

“I just think that’s a lot of money to spend on a campaign,” Fullam said. “Two million dollars is ridiculous when you think about how the money could have gone to other causes.”

She said the money could have been spent to help the homeless.

“I don’t know what a typical amount is, but $2 million doesn’t seem like a lot of money to me for a political campaign,” IU junior Chris Schweighardt said. “I feel like they could have raised that money at a fundraiser in a week.”

But not all campaigning comes from the candidates, parties or even individual donors.

“A lot of ads attacking Baron Hill and a lot of ads attacking Todd Young came from outside groups,” Wright said. “You can see a lot of negative ads and not even have it be reported.”