Lower temperatures, pumpkin spice lattes, and midterm congressional elections ― love or loathe these aspects of autumn, they’re right around the corner. The 2014 elections already look like they’ll shatter some spending records, and races are tight in multiple states. What might tip the scales either way?

If you’re a regular user of OpenSecrets.org, you probably already know that answer: money. Where that money comes from, of course, differs for everyone ― and sometimes its sources can seem a bit unusual. At the Center for Responsive Politics, we’re the type of people who love looking for these kinds of anomalies. That’s why we’ve created the Anomaly Tracker, a fun tool that allows you to look at campaign finance trends, by candidate, that might seem a bit out of the ordinary.

We’re currently tracking five types of anomalies (but we always welcome suggestions for more):

Lawmakers sponsoring legislation that was lobbied by only one company or other organization whose employees or PAC also donated to the sponsoring lawmakers.

Lawmakers receiving twice as much in contributions from their top donors as their next highest donors.

Lawmakers receiving twice as much in contributions from their top donor industries as their next highest donor industries.

Lawmakers receiving more than 50 percent of their itemized contributions from out of state.

Cases in which more than 50 percent of a committee or candidate’s spending is paid to a single vendor.

We consistently get asked about candidates receiving more than 50% of their money from outside their home state. While we can’t comment on whether this is right or wrong, we do know that there are multiple reasons why a candidate might depend more on out-of-state campaign contributions: he or she may chair a congressional committee overseeing an industry whose main players are based outside of their state (like Sen. Ron Wyden, D-OR, whose position on the Senate Finance Committee has attracted significant donations from individuals from New York and Washington, D.C., among other areas); the lawmaker may represent a less wealthy or populous state whose residents are less likely to give big bucks to a congressional campaign (like Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.); he or she may enjoy a level of celebrity or a senior position in Congress that attracts big-dollar donors from around the country (like House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio); or there may be more than one of these factors at play (like Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-KY, whose campaign is No. 1 this cycle in money raised from out of state).

With the Anomaly Tracker, users can toggle the columns to see not only which members have the raised the highest dollar amount from outside their home state, but what percentage of their campaign war chest comes from out-of-state.

Which brings us to this week’s Politiquizz question:

Which voting member of Congress has raised the highest percentage of his or her campaign funds from out-of-state?

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The first person to submit the correct answer to [email protected] will win a free OpenSecrets.org bumper sticker. The answer can be found somewhere on our website.

In our last Politiquizz, we asked:

Which hot race — House or Senate — has seen the greatest amount of outside spending?

Congratulations to Matt McNally from Portland, Oregon, who was the first to submit the correct answer:

The North Carolina Senate race.



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