I know, I’m as shocked as you are.
Withdrawals only
An analysis of Federal Election Commission data by the Houston Chronicle found that more than three-fourths of Democratic political money raised in Texas has left the state.
Of the $21 million Texas Democrats have given to candidates running for federal office, Super PACs and party political committees in the 2012 election, only $4.8 million has gone to candidates from Texas.
Indeed, President Barack Obama has received nearly twice the amount of Lone Star campaign cash than the total raised for the state’s 36 congressional contests and its Senate race combined.
Nowhere is the money exodus more obvious than in U.S. Senate donations. Texas Democrats have given out-of-state Democrats about 30 times as much money as they have to their own party’s Texas Senate candidates. They have supplied more than $3.7 million to Democrats such as at-risk incumbents Missouri’s Claire McCaskill, Florida’s Bill Nelson and Michigan’s Debbie Stabenow – but they have contributed only $135,000 to the underdog Democrats seeking for the seat being vacated by longtime Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Dallas.
It is what it is, and what it is is a vicious circle and a chicken-and-egg problem. Until the Dems can prove they’re viable statewide, lots of people will be persuaded to give most of their donations to non-Texas races. Until people start giving more of their money to Texas Democratic candidates and organizations, it will be that much more difficult to find and fund viable statewide candidates. And so it goes.