By: Bryan Lowry
WASHINGTON- Democrat Sharice Davids is hosting a panel Saturday about curbing the influence of special interest dollars in politics.
She’s leading a letter-writing campaign involving 100 House Democratic candidates calling for Congress to address the “corrosive role money and special interests have played in shaking the American people’s faith in the system.”
But at the same time, the Kansas Democratic House candidate is enjoying a campaign contribution bonanza and a flood of outside money from Democratic-leaning groups.
Davids’ campaign raked in more than $2.7 million from July through September, an amount more than double what Republican rival Rep. Kevin Yoder raised during the same period.
Her candidacy has also benefited from nearly $990,000 in spending from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and nearly $350,000 in spending from the League of Conservation Voters Victory Fund.
Earlier this year, Davids prevailed in the six-way Democratic primary after Women Vote!, the political action committee for EMILY’s List, a group that works to elect progressive women, spent nearly $700,000 on ads highlighting Davids’ biography as an amateur mixed martial arts fighter who went onto serve as a White House fellow.
None of her primary opponents benefited from similar outside spending, and Women Vote! has continued to spend money on the Johnson County Democrat’s behalf, steering nearly $400,000 into the race since the August primary.
At the same time, Davids is making ending the influence of money and politics a big campaign theme.
Davids Friday did not directly address the role money has had in boosting her candidacy, but said in a statement that the “problem right now is that special interests like Wall Street and insurance companies have far too much power over politicians.”
Saturday, she’ll host the panel decrying big money in politics. Tiffany Muller, the president and executive director of End Citizens United, will be among those appearing with Davids at the Matt Ross Community Center in Overland Park, Kansas.
“There is absolutely too much money in our political system, but there is only one candidate in this race who is working to fix it and that’s Sharice,” Muller said in a statement.
Outside groups have spent more than $6 million in the race.
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