Helena, Mont.—Although Congress and the President got credit for initiating and passing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), it was governors and state lawmakers who decided how a significant amount of that federal money would be spent. A new report
The report shows that entities that gave money represented only 4 percent of the total number of non-governmental organizations that received contracts in the 3rd and 4th quarters of 2009. These organizations gave $47.4 million to state-level candidates and committees in 2008, and received $7.6 billion in ARRA contracts, or 14 percent of the total amount awarded.
However, while these numbers show that some donors received substantially more than they gave, those who gave the most to candidates in their state generally didn't receive the most money in ARRA contracts. In fact, the only organization among both the top ten campaign contributors as well as the top ten ARRA recipients is Florida Power & Light (or the parent company FPL Group), which gave candidates and committees $1.6 million and received $200 million in contracts. In sharp contrast, Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC)-Frederick Inc. only contributed $13,600 to candidates and committees in 2008 and received contracts worth $319.6 million.
"While we did not find a huge overlap of contributors and recipients of contracts, this information provides a necessary baseline as the nation watches how the rest of the ARRA funds are spent," said Edwin Bender, executive director of the Institute.
The nonprofit, nonpartisan National Institute on Money in State Politics collects and analyzes campaign contribution information on state-level candidates, political party committees, and ballot committees. Its free, searchable database of contributions, as well as the full text of the report
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