Where the Small Money Goes, 2010 Edition

With Nancy Scola looking at the future of the big-dollar Democratic donor and Businessweek — Businessweek! — diving in to the fundraising proclivities of Rep. Michele Bachmann, maybe it's time to take a look at what small-dollar donors are actually doing this year.

They're giving. Oh yes, they are: To Bachmann, and to other marquee candidates either competing outside the fold of their party establishment or engaged in a quixotic campaign for a seat they'll never occupy.

The candidates that acquire the most contributions under $200 — unitemized contributions — are also the most partisan, single-issue, or nationally polarizing, an analysis of Federal Elections Commission data shows. For example, Tarryl Lynn Clark, the Minnesota Democrat-Farmer-Labor candidate running against Bachmann, saw 53 percent of $2.1 million come to her campaign in contributions of $200 or less. The congresswoman herself received 34 percent of $4.1 million in the form of small-dollar donations.

The leading recipient of small-dollar donations to date this cycle is Bill Russell, who lost in the Republican primary for the right to challenge eventual winner Mark Critz (D) for the late Rep. John Murtha's (D-PA) House seat. Russell didn't make it out of the primary. But he spent $2.8 million on a direct mail campaign, records show, and raked in $3.3 million in small-dollar donations thanks in part to that campaign. Overall, he raised 72 percent of his campaign contributions through small-dollar donations. UPDATED About $1.5 million $402,000 went to Base Connect, a company that the Campaign Finance Institute's Michael Malbin tells me specializes in raising money on behalf of longshot Republican candidates and walking away with a sizable chunk of the proceeds. Another $1.6 million went to Century Data Mailing Service for direct mail fundraising expense, records show. Century Data and Base Connect share the same address, according to Russell's FEC filings, and are listed as strategic partners. (They are also so listed on Base Connect's website , but that information was removed.)

[SECOND UPDATE: Michael Centanni, Base Connect's chief operating officer, writes to say that Russell spent $3.5 million on his direct mail campaign and raised $4.3 million through direct mail, netting about $791,000. However, he says, about $1.9 million was spent on postage alone — meaning the money went to the post office, not to Base Connect or any of its partners. From a business perspective, he adds, a 19 percent return on investment — that is to say, the Russell campaign walking away with 19 percent of the money raised in its name — would be considered pretty good.]

Russell's campaign manager, Peg Luksik, told me that direct mail accounted for the bulk of Russell's campaign receipts, but Internet fundraising was a close second.

After Russell comes Rep. Joe "You Lie" Wilson, Republican from South Carolina. Wilson has gained a lot of attention this year for the way he's raised money on the Internet, and both his fundraising and expense reports show that he's spent far less by focusing his attention to fundraising online. He's using the David All Group, among others. (Although, according to FEC records, he is shelling out for direct mail, too.)

Wilson's challenger this year, Democrat Rob Miller, is a poster child for Internet fundraising: According to FEC reports, he's raised $1.6 million so far this year in unitemized contributions, over $1 million of that on ActBlue alone.

Another Democratic Internet star, Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida has retained BlackRock, now part of Trilogy Interactive, to help him with online fundraising, records show — and has raised nearly $2.7 million in small contributions, much of that likely coming over the Internet.

Here's where it gets weird: between Bachmann and Miller on the list of top small-dollar fundraisers is House Minority Leader John Boehner, who raised $1.4 million — nearly a third of his total haul so far this cycle — from small donors.

"If you're a Tea Party supporter, you're probably very suspicious of Wall Street. The people who are cultivating that constituency one of the reasons ... those candidates are not going to be cultivating Wall Street. Are not going to be cultivating big corporations," Malbin, of the Campaign Finance Institute, told me.

"And Boehner as the leader is nationally known, [but] he doesn't fit the mold of being more extreme than his party," he later added. "He's right in the center of his party, that's why he's the leader."

CFI found in studies that there was no difference between the issue positions of small-dollar and large-dollar donors to the same candidate. So if candidates that draw large amounts of small-dollar donations would tend to scare off the big-check corporate money with their presumably populist issue positions, how does a guy like Boehner — the guy who said financial reform was "killing an ant with a nuclear weapon" — get on that list?

There's probably not enough data to find out — not yet. As part of the party leadership, Boehner's fundraising habits are probably a little different than many other candidates. Malbin cautioned me against drawing too many conclusions about 2010 based on mid-year fundraising because most fundraising happens closer to election day. It could be that other candidates will catch up to Boehner's totals so far as the people who actually have to protect their seats get more active in the race.

"I expect to see more contributions among small donors who are activated by Tea Party networks or Sarah Palin's endorsements," Malbin said. "I expect to see ActBlue to continue to be important among Democrats, but I also expect Democrats to be less enthusiastic."

CORRECTED: Because of an error in my analysis of FEC data, this article initially attributed expenditures to Base Connect that really went to Century Data Mailing Service. The two entities share the same address, according to Russell's FEC filings.