Follow the Money Trail

Name__Brent Hardy_________________________ Date__October 12, 2002_

Members of Congress are constantly raising money for the next election. For this project, you should examine the campaign fundraising of either your member of the House of Representatives or one of the U.S. Senators in Alabama.

If you don't know the name of your representative in the House and the U.S. Senators, just enter your zip code at the Project Vote Smart web site for a list of your congressional representatives: http://www.vote-smart.org/

The Federal Election Commission collects data on campaign fundraising. The FECInfo web site: http://www.tray.com/fecinfo/  provides extensive data on the ALABAMA congressional delegation.

Answer the following questions for your member of the House or U.S. Senator in Alabama: 

Robert Aderholt.

• How much money has the candidate raised?

$249,160 (available to date)

• How much money came from individual contributions and how much was raised from PACs?

$323,005 from individuals, $227,837 from PACs

• List four political action committees that have contributed to the candidate (click on the name of the candidate for a list of PAC contributions)

                  Alabama Power Co. Employee’s Federal Political Action Committee

                  AmSouth Bank Political Action Committee

                  BellSouth Corporation Employees’ Federal Political Action Committee

                  ChevronTexaco Employees Political Action Committee

• What are your impressions of the current system of campaign fundraising?

The current system of fundraising seems alright on the surface, but is easily corruptible.  One can obtain donations from interest groups who are, in fact, “buying” your loyalty.  Hypothetically, it is possible for those same interest groups to stop funding you and give money to an opponent should you ever start casting a ballot in a manner inconsistent with their wishes.  That could prove to be a very problem in Alabama because some serious changes are needed in several forums, and some institutions (namely big business) want things to stay the way they are.