Why House members voted the way they did on The Bailout - part 2

There are many reasons, of course, but one of them might be as follows:

MAPLight.org has found that, over the past five years, banks and securities firms gave an average of $231,877 in campaign contributions to each Representative voting in favor of the bailout, compared with an average of $150,982 to each Representative voting against the bailout--54 percent more money given to those who voted Yes.

And note the House members were bipartisan in this regard:

• Democrats voting Yes received an average of $212,700 each, about twice as much as those voting No, $107,993.
• Republicans voting Yes received an average of $273,181 each, 50% more than those voting No, $181,688.

Of course, it could all be a coincidence...

(Methodology explained here):
MAPLight.org's analysis used data from the Center for Reponsive Politics (OpenSecrets.org) and included campaign funds given from January 2003 through August 2008 by these industries: banks (including commercial banks, savings & loans, and investment banks), credit unions, finance companies, stock exchanges, venture capital and private equity firms, hedge funds, and securities and commodities brokers and firms. Data includes both PAC and individual contributions. We used Congressional voting records from the U.S. House website, via GovTrack.us.


Additonal interesting data:

The financial services sector has contributed more to candidates for Congress, Presidential candidates, and political parties than any other sector, totaling $339,649,585 from 2007-present.

The sector has also contributed heavily to both John McCain and Barack Obama’s Presidential campaigns in 2007-2008: $22,108,926 to Sen. McCain and $24,860,257 to Sen. Obama.

The financial services sector has been a top campaign contributor for years, donating more than $2 billion to Federal candidates from 1989 through today.