Kirsten
Gillibrand, first elected into office in 2009, is the democratic junior United
States Senator of New York’s 20th District. As Senator, Gillibrand serves on certain
committees and subcommittees. She
sits on the following committees: The Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and
Forestry, The Committee on Armed Services, The Committee on Environment and
Public Works, and The Committee on Aging.
Within these committees she is also a member of a number of
subcommittees. Among these are:
Subcommittee on Livestock, Marketing, and Agriculture Security, Subcommittee on
Commodities, Risk Management, and Trade, Subcommittee on Personnel, and the
Subcommittee on Airland. As a
member of The Committee on Agriculture, she strongly supported the passing of
the 2012 Farm Bill. Through this
bill she successfully worked on: “strengthening specialty crops, expanding rural
broadband and improving recovery efforts from natural disasters” (http://www.gillibrand.senate.gov/about/biography).
In
her time in office thus far, 80% of her funds come from individual
contributions (70% small individual contributions & 10% large individual
contributions) and 16% come from PACs.
Kirsten Gillibrand does not self-fund her campaigns at all (0%). Her top donors have consisted of: Boies
Schiller & Flexner, Davis Polk & Wardwell, Goldman Sachs, Corning Inc.,
and Morgan Stanley. Kirsten
Gillibrand is supported by 23 PACs and receives funding from each. Finance, Insurance, and Real Estate
PACs are her largest type of donors.
The second largest group of PACs is Lobbyists and Lawyers, which could
be due to the fact that Gillibrand was a practicing lawyer in the state of New
York before she got elected into office.
As
junior Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has sponsored and worked on a number of
bills. The majority of the bills
she sponsors come from her work in Some of these most recent bills include:
Pedestrian Act of 2015, Child Sexual Abuse Awareness Prevention Act, Meat and
Poultry Recall Notification Act of 2015, and Family and Medical Insurance Leave
Act. Each bill Senator Gillibrand
sponsors is associated with the committees she is a member of. Through all of her work in committees
and on the bills she sponsors it shows us that she mainly works in the realm of
the Democratic Party.
I
don’t think that money plays a huge role in Kirsten Gillibrand’s elections. Her donors don’t contribute money in
millions, which is what other Senators may be receiving. Much of her money does come from small
individual contributors not from big PACs. Compared to others, it is safe to
say that money does not completely and totally influence Gillibrand’s time in
office as a New York State Senator.
2 comments:
When a senator does not use much big contributor financing, do you think that their seat would be as secure against a challenger with PAC funding? In the video that we watched in class it seemed like the politicians who were able to make their campaigns work without PAC money were ones who oversaw more rural districts. So is this district more rural in comparison to other parts of New York and if not, should there be a concern as to whether this method of campaign funding is good for the long run or if it is just beneficial in the short term?
I find it so fascinating that so much of Senator Gillibrand's funding comes from small individual contributions! It is such a rarity these days, and like Phil, I wonder how that could impact her in the long-run. It is fairly incredible how little money she's received from PACs, and I wonder if voters will appreciate that and offer her extra support because of it, or if she will lose her seat to someone with more funding.
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