Rep. Eliot Engel (D) started his time as a Congressman in 1989 and currently represents New York's 16th District. Engel is a Ranking Member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, a member of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, a member of the Subcommittee on Energy and Power, and a member of the the Subcommittee on Health. Engel's moderate democratic stances on issues and general ideology aligns with his left-leaning constituents. Unsurprisingly, based on his committee memberships, 32% of his sponsored bills have been focused on international affairs, 13% have focused on energy, 6% have focused on science, technology, and communications, and 22% have focused on health. For more on Engel's background, please view my first blog post.
For the 2016 Election cycle, 63% of Eliot Engel's fundraising money come from individual contributions and 37% has come from PACs. Throughout the span of his Congressional career, 50% of his fundraising money has come from individual contributions, 49% has come from PACs, and 1% has come from other contributions. His biggest financial contributors for 2016 are: Avenue Ventures, Cai Industries, Nfs Inc, Citizens Organized PAC, and Northrop Grumman. Throughout his Congressional career, his biggest financial contributors are: Verizon Communications, Monroe College, American Assn for Justice, American Federation of Teachers, and American Fedn of St/Cnty/Munic Employees.
Most of the time, Engel votes with the majority of Democrats on bill proposals. On top of this, and unsurprisingly, most of his top contributors are liberal in their ideologies. His liberal voting stance on various bills such as him supporting the Head Start Act of 2007--a liberal eduction bill that makes changes to teacher qualifications and eligibility and renews the the Head Start Program and a bill that the American Federation of Teachers supported--and voting against the Requires Inclusion of Social Security Benefits in Calculation of Modified Adjusted Gross Income (2011)--a conservative Social Security adjustment bill that adjusted the definition of modified adjusted gross income to include the amount of social security benefits that were formerly excluded from gross income and a bill that American Fedn of St/Cnty/Munic Employees was against--adds to his support from his liberal constituents and his liberal financial contributors. The money he receives from his supporters has made him vote in ways that don't line up with what the majority of the Democratic Party aligns with, though. For example, Engel voted in favor of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2014--a conservative defense act that appropriated funds for the Department of Defense for the 2014 fiscal year which Northrop Grumman, one of his top contributors for 2016, favored. So while Engel tends to vote for what his constituents support, he also has shown to support who funds him even if their ideologies are different from the ideologies of his constituents.
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/eliot_engel/400122
https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cid=N00001003
https://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.php?cycle=Career&type=I&cid=N00001003&newMem=N
http://votesmart.org/bill/5768/16236/26972/head-start-act-of-2007#.ViF8dRNViko
http://votesmart.org/bill/14053/37162/26972/requires-inclusion-of-social-security-benefits-in-calculation-of-modified-adjusted-gross-income#.ViGFcRNViko
http://votesmart.org/bill/17291/45788/26972/department-of-defense-appropriations-act-2014#.ViF67hNViko
https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000083
https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000061
https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000000170
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