Limousine Liberals and Corporate Conservatives: The Financial Constituencies of the Democratic and Republican Parties^*

Abstract

Objective. This study examines the backgrounds, political attitudes, issue preferences, and political participation of congressional donors who contribute $200 or more to congressional campaigns. Methods. We use a nationwide survey of more than 1,000 donors and analyze differences among these individuals using cluster analysis. Results. Although these significant donors are economic elites, we find they are not monolithic in their political views and attitudes. There are significant cleavages in the donor pool across and within the two major parties on various political issues and involvement in different political organizations. Perhaps most important, we find that the most active donors hold the most ideologically extreme political views. Conclusions. The results suggest that the sharp cross-party differences and the meaningful variations within party coalitions, combined with the greater activity of more ideologically extreme donors, contribute to and reflect party polarization.Diverse coalitions are a defining aspect of American political parties.

Why Aren't There More Republican Women in Congress? Gender, Partisanship, and Fundraising Support in the 2010 and 2012 Elections

“…Previous research finds that male and female candidates raise equivalent sums once we account for seat status and the partisan electoral environment (Burrell 1994(Burrell , 2014Fiber and Fox 2005;Green 2003;Hogan 2007). Yet the majority of research on gender and fundraising activities only examines the experience of general election nominees.…”

“…Aspiring candidates must see a path to raising money when considering whether to throw their hat in the ring. Given that the networks of donors that contribute to political campaigns are overwhelmingly male dominated (Burns, Schlozman, and Verba 2001;Francia et al 2003), aspiring female candidates may have more difficulty imagining and assembling a coalition of financial backers. Indeed, surveys regarding political ambition and candidate attitudes indicate that women devote more time and effort to fundraising and that women are more deterred by the costs of a campaign, particularly the need to fundraise (Fulton et al 2006;Jenkins 2007).…”

“…In addition to neglecting fundraising patterns in primary elections, most studies that examine the impact of gender and partisanship include separate controls for party and sex but do not interact these variables in their regression analyses, making it more difficult to delve into the differences across and among Republican and Democratic men and women (see, e.g., Burrell 1994Burrell , 2014Fiber and Fox 2005;Green 1998Green , 2003. There are important reasons to believe that Republican women may have more difficulty fundraising than Democratic women.…”

“…The activists who constitute the individual donor pool are motivated by ideology (Barber 2016;Boatright 2013;Francia et al 2003Francia et al , 2005Gimpel, Lee, and Pearson-Merkowitz 2008;Johnson 2010). In the current partisan and polarized electoral environment, Democratic women should benefit from the fact that they are generally more liberal than Democratic men (Frederick 2009;Pearson 2013), and they are perceived to be more liberal by voters (King and Matland 2003;Koch 2000).…”

“…While Democratic women are perceived as more liberal, Republican women are assumed to be more moderate than Republican men (King and Matland 2003;Koch 2000). This perception of moderation is likely not helpful in the current polarized environment, in which Republican primary voters and donors are among the most conservative (Abramowitz 2010;Francia et al 2003Francia et al , 2005Johnson 2010). Even though conservative women are more likely to run in the current environment (Thomsen 2015), these Republican women may need to raise and spend more money to prove their conservative credentials.…”