Super committee member Van Hollen doubles campaign cash intake over last quarter
By Anupama Narayanswamy Oct 18 2011 11:19 a.m.The campaign of super committee member Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., took in more than twice as much money in the third quarter of 2011 as it did in the second, newly released Federal Election Commission records show. Overall, two of the six House members of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction--popularly known as the "super committee"--reported increased fundraising totals in the third quarter.
Van Hollen and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, the other lawmaker whose campaign committee saw an uptick in money coming in, collected $153,278 and $471,259 respectively for the third quarter. Hensarling, the super committee's co-chairman, reported receiving an increase of $155,000, while Rep. Van Hollen, D-Md., reported an increase of more than $80,000.
Both members were appointed the second week of August to the special panel, granted power to craft a plan to cut federal debt. The supercommitee is tasked with cutting $1.2 trillion from the federal deficit by the end of November to avoid a series of automatic cuts.
The trend with a dip in fundraising in the third quarter of a non-election year is not alarming, but quite expected in the post August recess session in Congress.
Over the course of his career, Van Hollen has raised more money from lobbyists and lawyers than any other industry sector, according to the Center for Responsive Politics--some $1.6 million since 2004, when he was first elected to Congress. Two of his all-time top donors are DC- lobby shops Arent Fox LLP ($152,323) and Arnold Porter ($61,240), both of which have a long list of pharmaceutical and health services related clients. In the most recent filings, one employee from each of the firms have donated to Van Hollen's campaign. Realtors make another top group that have donated to Van Hollen's campaign in the past and this cycle the Realtor's PAC and a few other employees of real estate companies have made donations.
Hensarling has received large sums from the financial industry ($3.5 million), including tax and accounting firms and some of the country’s largest banks.
Here’s a quick look at the raw data from the FEC presented as a spreadsheet. Dig in to search for donations going to all six House members on the supercommittee. To avoid double counting, line items marked 'x' in the 'memo_code' field should not be used in totals. Senate filings cannot be presented similarly since they are not filed electronically.
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