Campaign Finance – Kalamazoo Democrats vs. Republicans
I was curious what the financial picture of my two local major parties looked like, so I did some fact-digging in the Michigan Secretary of State’s campaign finance records. Here’s what I found.
2006
In 2006 the KCDP raised $172,541.70 and had a total of 112 contributions. That’s compared with the $60,578.45 raised from 709 contributions by the Kalamazoo GOP in 2006.
Jon Stryker was the KCDP’s largest contributor in 2006, donating $74,600 (43.23% of their yearly contributions). The other major KCDP contributors for 2006 were Timothy Light ($13,000), E.J. Fletcher ($10,000 – CEO of Rx Optical), Paul Todd ($10,000 – former CEO of KalSec), and the Michigan Democratic Party Central Committee ($6,000).
Straight Talk America was the Kalamazoo GOP’s largest contributor, donating $5,000. Frederick Taylor contributed $3,715 and Lorence Wenke contributed $2,305.
The Kalamazoo Democrats out-raised the Kalamazoo GOP nearly 3-1. Still, they couldn’t win the 20th Senate District, 61st House District, or the 63rd House District. They did, however, retain the 60th district which is essentially the City of Kalamazoo’s own private seat in the Legislature.
2008
The KCDP raised $188,605.72 from 547 contributions in 2008 compared to the Kalamazoo GOP’s $61,571.70 from 709 contributions.
The Kalamazoo GOP’s largest contributor was Frederick Taylor, who gave $3,955.
The KCDP’s biggest contributors were the Michigan Democratic Party Central Committee ($87,456.67) and JAM-PAC ($41,000). But what exactly is JAM-PAC? Do you remember that one State House race, the 60th district, that they won in 2006? Well, the guy that won that race, Robert Jones, created a PAC called Jones Advocating for Michigan. Now all of those rich Democrats (Paul Todd, Timothy Light, E.J. Fletcher) and some new ones (William Johnston, CEO Greenleaf Trust; John Brown, CEO Stryker) give to JAM-PAC which doles out the money to the KCDP among other things.
The Kalamazoo Democrats out-raised the Kalamazoo GOP by more than 3-1. Still, they again couldn’t win the 61st House District or the 63rd House District. They did, however, again retain the 60th district. I’m assuming that Jon Stryker didn’t think dropping another $74k into a bunch of mismanaged campaigns and seemingly incompetent party leadership was such a good idea.
Conclusions
In varying capacities, Democrats and Republicans both think that they’re the champions of the people. Perhaps more so for Democrats in Kalamazoo County, many of whom have those annoying “Democrats Serve the People” bumpers stickers. Even if the local Democrats actually did serve the people, they certainly aren’t funded by “the people”. To be fair though, Jon Stryker, Timothy Light, E.J. Fletcher, Paul Todd, and Alice Wall are all people – they just have nothing in common with the rest of us.
Of all the data I looked at one thing is clear: the Democrats have out-raised the Republicans roughly 3-1 in both 2006 and 2008. More to the point, the local elite have definitely sided with the Democrats to little or no avail.
Also, keep in mind that I’m presenting this data as an outsider: I’m neither a Republican or a Democrat (though, I’ve been accused of being both because I’ve criticized candidates from either major party… I’ve been running this independent blog since October 2009 but that fails to dissuade people).
I’ve collected this information directly from the Secretary of State’s website; I’ve provided the files that I downloaded from the SoS website. You also find this data online here. The Kalamazoo GOP’s committee ID is 001353 and the KCDP’s is 001354.