The race to represent Capitol Hill and a good chunk of the area around our shores of the Puget Sound in Washington D.C. has been a money magnet — more than $4 million has flowed into the campaigns from right here in the 98112 and 98102 to the surprisingly powerful ZIP code of West Somerville, Massachusetts. Meanwhile, there are also money trails to track in the race to represent our part of Seattle in Olympia.

“Follow the money,” is the guidance Deep Throat offers journalist Bob Woodward in the classic All the President’s Men. It was good advice for ferreting out corruption in Washington D.C. but when it comes to covering local politics, a focus on campaign contributions and endorsements can result in a front-runner bias and a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy.

We’ve tried to start our coverage around the issues. In the WA 07 District race for Congress:

And in the state race to represent the 43rd District in Olympia:

But as the campaigns move into their final turns and any remaining undecideds sort out their choices as they join the around 60% of voters still expected to drop their ballot before Tuesday, here is a final examination that will make Deep Throat happy and a brief look at what influence all that cash was able to buy across local media and community groups.

Where the money is going in the 43rd

Judging by the money alone, we are going to have a tight race in the 43rd. Trial lawyer Dan Shih raised a bundle before the primary and has continued to hold his own in the months since but it has been in a much closer cash race with August’s top vote getter, housing advocate Nicole Macri. In the big push to the end across September and October, the candidates turned in a practical fundraising dead heat — Macri raised just under $58,000, Shih, around $3,000 less.

As for where their contributors come from, Macri takes the local money crown by a landslide. Nearly 80% of her contributors list a Seattle address. Only 25% of Shih’s money comes from Seattle with Bellevue, Mercer Island, and Renton givers also coughing up large chunks of the campaign’s cash.

Shih’s Top 20 contributors Macri’s Top 20 contributors

The two candidates have received contributions from a mix of individuals and groups at around the same rate, according to the state’s data. 65% of Shih’s contributed cash came from individuals, 59% of Macri’s. A listing of each candidate’s top 20 contributors is above.

District 7’s big money

Because of the requirements around quarterly reporting in congressional races, the big race to represent our part of the state in Washington D.C. has much murkier optics when it comes to who is giving money to power the campaigns of Democrat vs. Democrat Pramila Jayapal and Brady Walkinshaw.

With filings for the last quarter still being processed as of their mid-October deadline, all we know are the totals are big. Nobody running for the House of Representatives in Washington has received more cash that Jayapal and her $2.5 million in contributions. But Walkinshaw isn’t far behind. The current 43rd District rep tallied $1.6 million in contributions.

Through August, one of the largest differences between the two candidates was where in the nation their individual contributors lived. Walkinshaw’s money was largely homegrown with more than 30% coming from Capitol Hill ZIP codes. Jayapal’s early individual contributions were, you might be surprised to learn, centered around Postal Code 02144 in West Somerville, Massachusetts. That’s the registered address for ActBlue, “a PAC allowing individuals and groups to channel their progressive dollars to candidates and movements of their choosing.” Through August, more than 40% of Jayapal’s individual funding had come from the PAC.

UPDATE: A Jayapal campaign representative has clarified the ActBlue contributions:

ActBlue is a non-profit, building fundraising technology for the left. It is an online credit card processing tool that all Democrats can use. The contributions you see from ActBlue on our reports are actually contributions from individuals who gave directly to our campaign through links we provided or can be found on our website and their contributions are also reported. The way it works is you report your ActBlue contributions as earmarked contributions and then the individual contribution is then reported separately.

Both have since been the beneficiaries of even more Political Action Committee spending with Walkinshaw getting 1.6% of his total form PACs and Jayapal reporting a whopping 12% of her money as sourced to the interest groups. Examples of Walkinshaw’s PAC backers include CHC Bold PAC, Leadership for Today and Tomorrow, Vargas for Congress

Equality Pac, Actblue, and Friends of Debra Shore. Jayapal’s labor-packed PACs include the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, United Auto Workers, Moveon.org, IUPAT Pac, American Federation of Teachers, the AFL-CIO, and NARAL.

And both have seen a surge in “independent expenditures” from PACs heading into the final stretch. The Latino Victory Fund boosted Walkinshaw in October with a $285,000 advertising spend. A few days later, Women Vote! spent $300,000 on advertising to defend Jayapal. Overall, the Seattle Times reports Jayapal has been boosted by more than $500,000 in spending outside her campaign, while Walkinshaw’s only such boost so far came from the Latino Victory Fund.

As for the final days, there isn’t much left to burn. Jayapal reports having spent $2.3 million of her $2.5 million war chest. Walkinshaw reports having burned through all but around $100,000 of his $1.6 million.

Endorsements

Still struggling to make a choice after reviewing the candidates on their records and their initiatives… and the money? Here is a look at which candidates media outlets and some key groups have decided to back.