Campaign financing

If you haven’t spent time on the Public Disclosure Commission’s website, I highly recommend it. How else would I know that commissioner candidate David Madore bought more TV advertising after paying $5,000 to a Tumwater company to conduct a poll?

(Too bad the PDC doesn’t have access to the poll results!)

Madore, who has contributed more than $300,000 to his campaign, isn’t alone in spending his own bucks in a bid to be elected.

Tacoma Democrat John (Jack) Connelly Jr. has contributed $988,382 to his state Senate campaign, in addition to a $87,300 loan.

Troy Kelley, a Democrat running for state auditor, has put $299,800 into his campaign in addition to a $9,988 loan.

But individual contributors are still king, according to the PDC, which has this breakdown of $52 million in contributions to candidates. Individuals accounted for $29 million in donations, with businesses ($7.9 million) and political action committees ($6.1 million) a distant second and third. The “self” category ranked fourth, with $3.1 million, ahead of unions and political parties.