Excel Story

Interest groups have been working hard—but for who’s interests?

Interest groups put forth a great deal of money in the year 2000, not toward advocating what they stand for, but toward endorsing and supporting candidates that seem to be willing to take action that benefits the groups, making themselves and the candidates the ones who are actually benefiting.

Interest groups gave large monetary contributions that went toward television ads, direct mailings, posters, and other publicity material that endorsed the candidates they each support. The single largest contribution was made by the Save Our Planet Group, which donated $1,075,837 to Adams.

The same group was also responsible for the second largest contribution of $1,075,827 for Peterson. These large sums of money make the Teacher’s Union’s contribution of $1,515 for Smith seem meager, but it is a considerable amount of money nevertheless. In total, the six candidates received $37,245,075 in endorsements from interest groups.

The total amount of contributions that Peterson received was $11,931,499. McDonald comes in second with a total amount of $9,311,066 in endorsements from interest groups. Adams received a total of $8,607,008. Thurston received a considerably smaller amount of only $3,599,413, with Johnson following close behind with a total of $2,073,212 in interest group endorsements. Smith comes in last with a total of only $1,722,877.

On average, each interest group gave $170,450 to Peterson with Adams trailing close behind with an average contribution amount of $153,692. McDonald received the third largest amount in endorsements from interest groups of $102,375. Interest groups gave an average amount of $95,700 to Thurston and $74,043 to Johnson. The average amount the groups gave to smith was only $49,225 which is a very long stretch from the average amount each group gave to candidates such as Peterson, Adams, and McDonald.

The results of the 2000 election show a direct relationship with the amount of money that each candidate received in endorsements from interest groups. Adams, McDonald, and Peterson, who were the top three candidates to receive the largest amounts of money in endorsements, all won their elections.

Johnson, Smith, and Thurston, on the other hand, all lost their elections. These three candidates were also the three candidates who received the lowest amounts of money in endorsements from interest groups.

The relationship between the amount of money given in endorsements by each groups to each candidate and the results of the elections show that the interest groups actually had an impact on the results themselves through their endorsements.