CPI #8

July 5, 2000
  • Increase in campaign fundraising by congressional candidates for the 2000 elections over fundraising for the same time period in the 1998 elections: 37 percent.1
  • Average amount raised by incumbent candidates for U.S. Senate for 2000 elections: $2 million.2
  • Average amount raised by U.S. Senate candidates challenging these incumbents: $204,310.3
  • Percent of incumbent Senate candidates who were reelected in 1998: 90.4
  • Number of candidates using public funding provided under the new Clean Election Act running for seats in Maine’s state legislature this year: 121. 5
  • Increase in number of contested primaries for Maine State Legislature, 2000 vs. 1998: 40 percent.6
  • Percent of contested primaries that had at least one Clean Money candidate: 56 percent.7
  • Fundraising advantage of Clean Money incumbents over Clean Election challengers: 0.
  • Amount of money pledged to date to Democratic and Republican presidential nominating conventions: $71 million.8
  • Amount contributed by AT&T to Dem and GOP conventions: $1 million apiece.9
  • Number of times AT&T has hiked rates for calling card calls over the past 10 months: 3.10
  • Percent of national cable market AT&T could control if merger with MediaOne gets final federal approval: 40.11
  • Percent difference in average monthly rates for cable subscribers living in medium-sized markets where there is competition compared to those where there is not: 9.5 percent. 12

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1 Reflects first 15 months of 2000 election cycle v. first 15 months of 1998 election cycle. Federal Elections Commission, news release, June 5, 2000, www.fec.gov/press/canye99a.htm.
2 ibid.
3 ibid.
4 “The Big Picture: The Money Behind the 1998 Elections,” Center for Responsive Politics, 1999, www.crp.org.
5 Fact Sheet, Maine Citizen Leadership Fund, June 14, 2000.
6 ibid.
7 ibid.
8 Jim Newton, Los Angeles Times, “Major Firms Give Heavily to Political Conventions,” May 29, 2000, p. A1; gop2000.p