The analysis shows that the Republican leadership, including Speaker Paul Ryan and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, raises money from a vastly different set of political action committees than members further to the right. In fact, the donor bases for Ryan and McCarthy are actually more similar to some Democrats than to their colleagues in the main conservative grouping, the Freedom Caucus.
The fundraising disparity stokes the divisive atmosphere in Congress, reinforcing policy differences and sometimes affecting the outcome of legislation in surprising ways.
For example, when a Republican-backed plan to ease a campaign finance rule evaporated in Congress, it was the most conservative GOP lawmakers in the House who joined with liberal Democrats to get it killed.
The provision, which died in December, was initiated by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and was included in a must-pass spending bill. It would have eliminated caps on the money a national party committee can spend in coordination with a candidate.
The caps were originally meant to reduce the amount of outside cash flowing directly to advocacy for a particular candidate. Those in favor of lifting the restrictions say they are outmoded in the increasingly wild world of campaign finance and effectively give less-accountable outside groups like super PACs more influence than traditional parties.
Many Democrats argued that eliminating the caps would have opened the spigot to even more big money in politics. For conservatives, the reason to oppose the McConnell plan was different: It might have helped Republican leaders quash internal dissenters.
With a bigger campaign war chest raised from donors who support mainstream Republicans, the party would find it easier to select and back its favored House candidates. “The McConnell rider provides preferential treatment to the Washington establishment,” the Conservative Action Project, a group led by former Attorney General Edwin Meese, wrote in appealing to like-minded lawmakers to fight the measure.