When South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint leaves the Senate for the Heritage Foundation thinktank, look for Heritage to get a lot more active.
As one prominent California conservative activist who knows DeMint was telling me, “It’s not going to be, ‘Here’s our white paper on drones.’ It’s going to be more about ‘Here’s how you should vote.’”
And the money will follow DeMint, who has a strong rep among the conservative grassroots.
DeMint, the Tea Party fave, directed his own leadership PAC called the Senate Conservatives Fund. It spent $5.48 million in the 2010 and 2012 elections, but didn’t have a good record. Jim D’s candidate only won 8 of the 27 primary or general elections it played in.
And according to the folks at the nonpartian Maplight, which analyzes the role of money in politics, the Heritage Foundation PAC’s made $227,000 in independent expenditures in federal races — all in October 2012. PAC’s preferred candidate won in only two of the seven races it played in.
But conservatives feel that Heritage’s profile will skyrocket with the outspoken DeMint on their megaphone — and the money will follow.
Courtesy of Maplight, here’s a breakdown of those races:
Data: MapLight analysis of independent expenditures from the Heritage Foundation’s PAC in the 2012 election cycle.
Race | Achieved Desired Election Result? |
Candidate | Opposing $ |
Supporting $ |
Grand Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ill. – 8th | L. Tammy Duckworth (D) | $85,289 | |||
Joe Walsh (R) | $23,639 | ||||
Ill. – 8th Total | NO | $108,928 | |||
Penn. – 12th | Mark Critz (D) | $27,058 | |||
Keith Rothfus (R) | $17,165 | ||||
Penn. – 12th Total | YES | $44,223 | |||
N.Y. – 24th | Daniel Benjamin Maffei (D) |
$26,083 | |||
Ann Marie Buerkle (R) | $16,190 | ||||
N.Y. – 24th Total | NO | $42,273 | |||
President | Barack Obama (D) | $15,446 | |||
President Total | NO | $15,446 | |||
Wisc. – 8th | James Richard Wall Jr. (D) |
$3,650 | |||
Reid Ribble (R) | $3,650 | ||||
Wisc. – 8th Total | YES | $7,300 | |||
Ohio – Senate | Sherrod Brown (D) | $5,342 | |||
Ohio – Senate Total | NO | $5,342 | |||
Penn. – Senate | Robert P. Casey Jr. (D) | $3,912 | |||
Penn. – Senate Total | NO | $3,912 | |||
Grand Total | $166,781 | $60,645 | $227,426 |
METHODOLOGY: MapLight analysis of independent expenditures made by Heritage Action for America in support of or opposition to federal candidates from Jan. 1, 2011-Dec. 2, 2012. Source: FEC.gov. If you use MapLight data please cite accordingly.
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