…from Unions, Lawyers and other congressional clowns.  Phil Hare raised $170,000 in the second quarter.  His campaign trumpets:

…79 percent of Hare’s donors were individuals.
 
“Congressman Hare remains in the driver’s seat when it comes to resources in this race,” said Maggie Depoorter, political director for Friends of Phil Hare. “This 2nd quarter report went above and beyond our greatest expectations, once again demonstrating the enthusiasm for Congressman Hare and his agenda. The fact that so many people contributed, especially in this tough economy, shows that voters support the Congressman’s efforts to invest in the 17th District, create jobs, and hold Wall Street accountable. We expect to have nearly $1 million at our disposal to spread Congressman Hare’s record of accomplishment this fall.”

While his campaign committe acts as if all the money was contributed by individuals, it was not.  Instead, the vast majority of Hare’s money has always been contributed by labor unions, law firms, political action committees and other congressional campaigns.   In this article, Bobby Schilling’s campaign points out “that $120,000 of Hare’s funding came from special interest groups from outside the district, accounting for 2/3 of Hare’s total second quarter fundraising.”

Clicking here shows that almost all of Hare’s donations come directly from the aforementioned groups, most outside of the 17th District, and hardly any individuals.  It also states that Hare had only 187 contributions – wow, what a groundswell!   In fact, I ran a search at opensecrets.org, and it doesn’t appear that even Maggie Depoorter, political director for Friends of Phil Hare, has ever donated $200 or more to Mr. Hare. 

By way of contrast, Schilling raised over $125,000 from individual donors and around $13,000 from political action committees. 

It seems the people support Mr. Schilling, while the entrenched interests who hope to use Mr. Hare as their continued tool to exploit said people for their own gain support His Phatness.