If there’s a message to be taken from the results in the Alabama special election primary battle on Tuesday, it may be that money can still defeat grassroots rhetoric — and that big business, infuriated by the tea party wing of the GOP that spurred the government shutdown, is serious about getting involved in congressional primaries.



In his pre-runoff filing, made on Oct. 24, Young reported having raised about $85,000, a paltry sum compared to the $689,000 raised by Byrne. And if that wasn’t enough of an imbalance, donations for Byrne continued to pour in, while Young’s already low campaign coffers barely grew. Between that filing and the election, candidates filed reports listing all donations over $1,000 received in the preceding 48-hour period, but Young made only two such filings — and reported receiving only $5,600 in large donations. Byrne’s final report, made Nov. 2, on the other hand, showed he picked up more than $63,000 in large donations in the preceding two days alone. In total, Byrne made four of these 48-hour reports, and listed raising a total of $149,400 in large donations in his final two weeks of campaigning. Tea party candidate Dean Young likened himself to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a crowd-pleasing pronouncement. But unlike Cruz, Young got very little financial support, and in the last few days of the race, he raised almost nothing. His more mainstream Republican opponent, Bradley Byrne (at right), on the other hand, picked up tens of thousands of dollars in last minute donations, mainly from business interests and out-of-state conservative backers. Byrne won handily.

Help us keep government accountable by making a donation today.

On Oct. 30, Byrne also received a $10,000 donation from the leadership PAC of House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the third-most powerful Republican in Congress.

Byrne also picked up support from outside groups spending on his behalf. Although outside spending has frequently been in the form of negative attack ads, almost all of the outside money in this race was in support of candidates — especially Byrne. A total of $425,000 was spent by outside groups, of which $258,000 was in support of Byrne.

The politically active nonprofit Ending Spending shelled out just shy of $60,000 in support of Byrne, and about $43,000 on ads attacking Young. The group’s super PAC arm spent heavily in the 2012 election, and picked up the bulk of its funding — about $12.2 million of a total $14 million — from Joe Ricketts, the founder of TD Ameritrade.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce also spent roughly $199,000 on behalf of Byrne, including $40,000 in the last week of the race.

Young picked up some minor support from the Our Voice PAC , run by Sharron Angle, the failed tea party challenger to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) in 2010. That group spent about $65,000 supporting Young.

Citizens United spent about $26,000 in the race on a third candidate, Quin Hillyer, who ultimately dropped out and endorsed Byrne.

Image: Bradley Byrne on election night. (AP Photo/AL.com, Sharon Steinmann)



For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics.For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: [email protected]





Support Accountability Journalism At OpenSecrets.org we offer in-depth, money-in-politics stories in the public interest. Whether you’re reading about 2020 presidential fundraising, conflicts of interest or “dark money” influence, we produce this content with a small, but dedicated team. Every donation we receive from users like you goes directly into promoting high-quality data analysis and investigative journalism that you can trust.Please support our work and keep this resource free. Thank you. Support OpenSecrets ➜