Introducing Brian Munzlinger

Brian Munzlinger is a conservative Republican running for State Senator in District 18.  He is a third generation farmer and holds conservative and christian values.  As far as we have found, his campaign contributions are mostly from the agriculture industry.  This is obviously because Munzlinger strongly supports the agricultural business and as the current State Senator in District 1 Munzlinger has shown great support for agriculture and the small business. 

Munzlinger's background plays a large role in his campaign fund-raising.  He has always made it a priority to assist farmers in Missouri.  According to Munzlinger's biography, he helped found the Northeast Missouri Grain Processors Co-Op Ethanol Plant located in Macon; this is the first ethanol plant in Missouri and Munzlinger still serves on the board of this Co-Op.  He is also the former president of the Missouri Corn Growers Association and is a current member of Missouri Soybean Association, Missouri Cattlemen's Association, and NFIB.  

Being actively involved in organizations such as these has helped Munzlinger network and gain support and campaign funds.  Look for more on Brian Munzlinger in a couple of days!  For more information on Brian Munzlinger, follow our classmate's blog!

"Where's My Stimulus?"

Hey everyone! We hope you had a nice and relaxing weekend! We wanted to bring you an extra post this week because we feel we came across a lot of information on our candidate Roy Blunt.  We also apologize to any of you who had taken a look at the blog in the past day, we were experiencing some technical difficulties and are glad to have it back to normal!

Blunt, like any other candidate, not only receives money, but also spends money on attacks on opponents.  Blunt’s opposing candidate, Robin Carnahan, is who he and Friends of Roy Blunt individual supporters have been attacking.

They are focusing their attack on the money that Carnahan’s younger brother, Tom Carnahan, received from his wind farm company.  Tom Carnahan received $107 million from the stimulus.  The Republican candidates believe that this is controversial because the farm is based in Saint Louis where two Carnahan’s currently hold office already.  Russ and Robin Carnahan supported this $814 billion stimulus and then their brother Tom received $107 million of it.  Blunt and his supporters do not see how this is just.

The attack ad that Roy Blunt is supporting is targeting this money exchange and how the stimulus has not increased our jobs like it said it would.

For more information on Roy Blunt, please visit our fellow classmates’ blog specifically dedicated to him!

Chamber Controversy

Our goal in this blog is to show you where a candidate’s campaign money is coming from.  There are other ways to support a campaign financially than directly donating money to the campaign.  Certain organizations can endorse a candidate and run their own ads about that candidate or attack ads, benefiting the campaign.

One of Roy Blunt’s major endorsers is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  We decided to focus on this endorser because of the recent controversy concerning where the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is receiving money from.  The U.S. Chamber of Commerce currently has foreign members and receives foreign money.  It is illegal to use any foreign money for campaign funds. Blunt was recently seen ignoring the press when asked questions concerning the foreign donations to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

According to thinkprogress.org, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce has funneled all donations from foreign organizations into one general account.  After this the money is not kept track of.  The general account money is then used to run attack ads and the chamber doesn’t need to reveal where the money came from.  The Chamber has run over 8,000 ads against Democrats and has spent 85 percent of its allotted 75 million dollars on Republicans.

As the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is one of Roy Blunt’s supporters and has endorsed him we feel it is necessary to know about the controversy the Chamber is involved with.  One of the main issues the Chamber supports Blunt on is his campaign for more jobs.  The U.S. Chamber has recently sponsored ads such as the one below that promote Republican candidates in support of more jobs.

As a voter it is important to understand that a candidates endorsers could have foreign monetary supporters.  Roy Blunt when confronted about this issue denies having any idea about the situation and directed the press to speak to the chamber.  

 

Roy Blunt and his Financial Supporters!

We hope everyone had a great weekend and is ready to kick the week off with Roy Blunt, the Republican Senate candidate for 2010! We're going to bring the same information to you that we did with Luetkemeyer and hopefully even more since our classmates, Carrie and Adam, will be covering Robin Carnahan and we can look at her attack ads as well.

Roy Blunt has been an active member of his campaign for the November election. Impressive is the fact that he is very involved with social media. It was not hard to find both Blunt's Facebook page and his Twitter updates. If you want to learn more about what Blunt stands for check out his homepage and the social media he has invested in and it will really help you!

But, tonight we really wanted to take a look at the PACs that have supported Blunt for this election. The total amount of PAC money Blunt has made for the 2010 year is $2,342,358 and the number of contributions is at 948.

One of the top dollar amount contributors to Blunt is the Energy and Natural Resources industries. These PACs have contributed a total of $233,500.  A few of the sectors of this industry include: Oil & Gas and Mining.

Blunt has been a recognized leader for energy issues, especially in 2008. He wants to cut ties with bringing in outside products from other countries and keep it within the United States. It makes sense why PACs would support him financially for what he is trying to do.

Check back in with us on Thursday and we will have more information for you on Blunt and his finances! And start thinking about who you would like us to cover locally because soon we will have a poll for you! 

Luetkemeyer: Accurately Representing Missouri

Luetkemeyer does not have a Democratic opponent this election cycle. 

David Rosman, a columnist for the Missourian, thinks that the most common reason the Democratic party did not supply a candidate because there are rumors of Missouri losing a congressional seat, currently Luetkemeyer’s seat, and no one wanted to serve this seat and for only one term. 

We think another important reason Luetkemeyer doesn’t have an opponent is because he has proven himself as a good representative for our district.  He has also won the support of many influential and important organizations that have gladly funded his campaigns.

In the breakdown of how Luetkmeyer has received money, his top supporters have been those effected by the bills he helped pass.  The many organizations, we would assume, continue to support him because he follows through on his promises or he exemplifies their values.

 Luetkemeyer voted “yes”on a bill that passed appropriations for agriculture, rural development, and the food and drug administration in 2009. 

This is just one vote that shows Luetkemeyer has accurately been representing the wishes of his constituents and his financial supporters since he has been in term.  

Blaine Luetkemeyer

U.S. Representative, Blaine Luetkemeyer, represents 25 counties in the 9^th district of Missouri.  He has no opponents for the 2010 election.  The district that he covers can be seen on the map below!

http://politics.usnews.com/congress/luetkemeyer-blaine

We’re going to split the information we have on Luetkemeyer into a few blogging sessions. For a look at Luetkemeyer's complete campain finance breakdown, check out opensecrets.org!

For the 2010 campaign, Luetkemeyer has received $393,054 in PACs from 289 different contributors.    

We want to take a closer look at the PACs that have donated money to his campaign.  He has received donations from a number of PACs and a list of them can be found on the opensecrets.org website.

The Eagle Forum is one PAC that has contributed to his campaign.  Phyllis Schlafly is the leader of this conservative organization that supports candidates that will enact their same values; Luetkemeyer votes in line with many of The Eagle Forum's conservative values.

The Eagle Forum is just one of several organizations that endorse Luetkemeyer.  Endorsers not only contribute monetarily to a campaign, but encourage members to vote for a specific candidate.  Endorsers will support candidates that enforce the values of the organization.

Luetkemeyer is endorsed by the Missouri Right to Life, National Federation of Independent Business and the National Rifle Association. 

Information You Need to Know!

Before we jump into analyzing Blaine Luetkmeyer, we wanted to give you some simple facts on what exactly advocacy groups do and how they influence the candidate. Until the end of the election the common groups we'll be looking at are Political Action Committee's (PAC's), third party organizations or interest groups and anyone financially supporting a republican candidate.

 A PAC is a special committee that raises money to support or defeat a candidate.  The main goal of a PAC is to represent a specific company or organization and influence candidates in office to pass legislature that would work in their favor.

Interest groups favor candidates that they know will enact legislature benefiting their specific cause.   Interest groups can also be formed to support political views, such as pro-life or pro-choice interest groups. 

We're going to watch these groups that are donating to each of our local republican candidates from Adair county.  Our goal is to make you aware of the groups that are donating to candidates and how they effect the candidate if they are elected. 

For more general information about PAC's, interest groups or other financially supporting organizations, check out our helpful links section!