Maureen Reed for Congress

A large part of Maureen Reed's fundraising success can be attributed to her strong support among female contributors. In fact, the Center for Responsible Politics, a watchdog group that studies campaign contributions, released an article today highlighting that Maureen's campaign received the 3rd highest percentage of contributions from women of all congresional races across the country, even including incumbent campaigns. This tremendous feat shows her widespread support, and is one of the reasons Maureen Reed is the candidate who will defeat Michele Bachmann. Go to the full article here: http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2009/11/men-still-dominate-campaign-fu.html

Read the article here:

Men Still Dominate Campaign Fund-raising Despite Women's Political Gains
Published by Doug Weber on November 3, 2009

Following the 1992 election -- the "Year of the Woman" -- women made up less than 11 percent of the incoming House members of the 103rd Congress and 6 percent of the Senate. At the start of the 111th Congress, women made up more than 17 percent of the House members and 17 percent of the Senate.

In contrast, there has been little growth in campaign contributions from women to congressional candidates, a Center for Responsive Politics analysis indicates. Women account for about a quarter of itemized contributions to congressional candidates. Democrats tend to get a slightly higher percentage from women than Republicans.

This pattern has held for candidates during the 2010 election cycle:
Office Sought Party From Men          From Women   % Men  % Women
House           D       $36,851,167       $12,919,401     74%      26%
House           R       $27,488,596       $8,684,694       76%      24%
Senate          D       $27,071,254       $10,693,874     72%      28%
Senate          R       $14,730,546       $5,169,330       74%      26%

As in the past, female Democrats this election cycle account for the greatest percentages of campaign contributions from women:
Candidate                                Party From Men   From Women   % Men % Women
Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.)             D       $127,975    $221,100            37%        63%
Francine P. Busby (D-Calif.)      D       $60,559      $76,750              44%        56%
Maureen Reed (D-Minn.)           D        $94,500     $108,975             46%       54%                            
Julie Hamos (D-Ill.)                    D       $220,390    $251,349            47%        53%
Ann McLane Kuster (D-N.H.)     D       $63,500      $65,757              49%        51%

Julie Hamos and Ann Kuster were both endorsed by EMILY's List, which funnels campaign funds to women Democrats who support abortion rights.

Also, as in the past, all the candidates receiving the highest percentage of contributions from men ... are men. Four of the top five are Democrats.
Candidate                            Party   Total            From Men           From Women  % Men % Women
Travis W. Childers (D-Miss.)      D    $118,120       $110,520            $7,600              94%      6%
James L. Oberstar (D-Minn.)      D   $174,500       $161,800             $12,700            93%      7%
Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.)     D    $120,650       $110,400             $10,250            92%     8%
Steve Scalise (R-La.)                 R    $266,536       $241,864            $24,672             91%     9%
Solomon P. Ortiz (D-Texas)      D     $133,290      $120,490             $12,800             90%    10%

The results are typical for congressional races.

Presidential races, however, tend to have a higher percentage of contributions from women. The 2008 presidential race saw an exceptionally high rate of contributions from women - Hillary Clinton received the majority of her itemized contributions from women, and Barack Obama received more than 40 percent of his contributions from women.

Doug Weber is the Center for Responsive Politics' senior researcher and an occasional contributor to Capital Eye.