Abstract
We know little about campaign contributors in local elections even though local governments
are “closest to the people” and enact policies that directly affect residents. In this paper we
study the geographic and demographic distribution of campaign contributions in St. Louis City
and St. Louis County elections from 2011-2020. To test our hypotheses about patterns of
inequality in campaign contributions, we aggregate donations to the zip code, and incorporate
demographic variables for income, race, and homeownership. We focus on donations from
individuals, which were the majority in both dollars and number of contributions. We find that
campaign donors for the two highest profile local offices in St. Louis government are
geographically and economically unrepresentative of the local population, with substantial
economic concentration of political donations from high-dollar contributors. This research is an
essential step in increasing transparency, thereby improving public understanding of how
contributions might influence economic and political standing in the community.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| State | Published - 2022 |
Keywords
- campaign contributions
- campaign finance
- election equity
- local elections
Disciplines
- American Politics
- Other Political Science
- Public Administration
- Public Policy
- Social Justice