Why Do Folks in Puerto Rico, California, or Arizona Want Burton Re-Elected?

In this first-in-a-series, “Follow the Money,” I want to take you through our current representatives’ donation information for the current election cycle.

In a district that stretches as far north as Miami, Wabash, and Huntington counties and as far South as Shelby County, you’d think that the majority of Dan Burton’s money would come from the good people living in the district. Wouldn’t you?

We’ll, I’d hope so, but after combing through his FEC filings, what we actually found was quite alarming. Since January of 2009, nearly 85% of Dan’s money is coming not only from outside of the district, but outside the entire state of Indiana. As you read through his donor list you see, CA, CA, FL, AZ, CA, FL, CA, MD, TX, AZ, FL, CT, Puerto Rico, DE, CT, CA, NY, NY… I think you get the drift.

So the question I ask to you is, why do folks in CA and AZ have such a huge stake in Dan Burton’s reelection? Is Dan running for Congress in Shelbyville, Converse, Tipton and Cicero? Or, is he running in Sacramento, Flagstaff…?

If this bothers you as much as it does me, I’m going to ask you to do two things. First, would you take a second to write a letter to the editor of your local paper pointing out that we need to have a representative in Congress who is supported by Hoosiers – not by out-of-state money? And that it’s time for all of us to elect someone with the best interests of Indiana at heart, not just someone who collects money from every political action committee that throws open its wallet. If you need help with finding the contact info, just contact my office and we’d be glad to help.

Second, would you make a donation from within the district to a candidate that actually wants to represent the people he’s elected by?

We have 54 days left until the primary election on May 4.
Together, we can win this thing, and restore representative government to Washington.

P.S. As you may or may not be aware, all of this information is publically available at FEC.gov, as it is a federal law to report all donations over $250.

March 11, 2010