43% of Congresswoman Kristi Noem's nearly $400K first-quarter fundraising haul came from PACs, including $3000 from Exxon Mobil PAC (ah, so that explains...). Pretty impressive for an intern!
But what happened to Kristi the outsider? Same as usual, says Dave Levinthal of the Center for Responsive Politics:
Freshmen who run as outsiders oftentimes become insiders pretty quickly.... The types of organizations that may not have paid them much attention, at least initially, are suddenly enamored with them because they have power. They're in Congress. They have the power to enact legislation that these special interests care about [Dave Levinthal, quoted in David Montgomery, "Noem's Financial Support Mounting for Re-Election Campaign" Rapid City Journal, 2011.04.28].
Now the next line of Montgomery's article says that former Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth Sandlin drew 55% of her campaign contributions from PACs during the last two cycles. But with Noem's PAC contributions zooming upward, please, let's do away with any talk of Kristi Noem as a shining Washington outsider. Noem is not shaking things up in Washington; she's happily making herself part of the system.
C.H. as usual you have hit right again.Noem needs to be called on the carpet for her vote against medicare what aloser we picked.