Detecting and Understanding Donor Strategies in Midterm Elections

• Author: Raymond J. La Raja,Jesse H. Rhodes,Brian F. Schaffner
• Date: 01 September 2018
• DOI: 10.1177/1065912917749323
• Published date: 01 September 2018
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912917749323

Political Research Quarterly

2018, Vol. 71(3) 503 –516

© 2018 University of Utah

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DOI: 10.1177/1065912917749323

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Article

Why do individuals make political contributions? At

present, the dominant answer to this question in political

science is that people donate money to express support

for a preferred political “team” and enjoy the emotional

benefits of participating in politics (Ansolabehere, de

Figueiredo, and Snyder 2003). In other words, making

campaign contributions is a form of consumption akin to

the purchase of other noninvestment experiences, such as

going to the movies or taking a vacation. Buttressing the

consumption framework, research suggests that donors

tend to give sincerely rather than strategically, emphasiz-

ing the proximity of a donor’s ideology to candidates to

whom they contribute (Bonica 2014; Ensley 2009;

McCarty, Poole, and Rosenthal 2016). While this theo-

retical framework is counterintuitive, it makes sense of

important facts—notably, that donors are unusually pas-

sionate about politics and have especially strong views

about candidates (Francia et al. 2003, 2005; Panagopoulos

and Bergan 2006), but typically donate such modest

amounts that they cannot possibly harbor expectations of

returns on their investments.

However, while the “contributions as consumption”

framework may help us understand what separates donors

from nondonors, it is less useful in helping to explain

why donors may differ from one another. Typically,

scholars rely on donation amounts to compare donors

with one another, making comparisons between those

who donate a little with those who give a lot. But how

much one gives to politics tends (once they have decided

to give) to be largely a matter of how much they earn. On

other metrics, such as ideological extremism, large donors

appear to look much like small donors (La Raja and

Schaffner 2015), although the most prolific donors seem

somewhat less extreme than small donors (Bonica and

Shen 2014).

In this paper, we suggest an alternative approach to try-

ing to differentiate donors. Specifically, we make use of

individual decisions as to where to allocate contributions

to provide fresh insight into the strategies individuals are

pursuing when they make contributions (Francia et al.

2003). Because different types of recipients—congressio-

nal candidates, parties, Political Action Committees

(PACs), interest groups, and so forth—vary dramatically

in their ideological extremism (Bonica 2014), political

objectives (Francia et al. 2003), and public visibility, deci-

sions by contributors about the allocation of their dona-

tions likely convey considerable information about

donors’ preferences and goals. Consequently, variations in

contribution patterns across all recipients may point to the

existence of different types of donors, associated with

749323PRQXXX10.1177/1065912917749323Political Research QuarterlyRhodes et al.

research-article2018

1University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA

Corresponding Author:

Brian F. Schaffner, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 200 Hicks

Way, Amherst, MA 01003, USA.

Email: schaffne@polsci.umass.edu

Detecting and Understanding Donor

Strategies in Midterm Elections

Jesse H. Rhodes1, Brian F. Schaffner1, and Raymond J. La Raja1

Abstract

What explains how political donors decide where to give? Existing research indicates that people donate money to

express support for a preferred political “team” and enjoy the emotional benefits of participating in politics. While

this explains why people donate, it does little to help understand the different strategies that donors may pursue.

In this paper, we use data on individual decisions as to where to allocate contributions to provide fresh insight into

the strategies donors are pursuing. Our approach yields a much more nuanced view of campaign finance by showing

how differently situated donors pursue divergent contribution strategies. Of particular note, we identify an influential

class of engaged and wealthy political donors that spreads their dollars widely, especially focusing on giving to out-of-

jurisdiction candidates. This illustrates just how influential the recent elimination of aggregate contribution limits may

be in allowing a small share of donors to be broadly influential.

Keywords

campaign finance, donors, latent class analysis