Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Who Raised More From Out of State?

Letter writer Dan Clawson from Northampton corrects the Globe's assertion that Deval Patrick has raised the most out-of-state money in the campaign so far, using the Globe's own numbers:

A little math, combined with your own graphic, shows that out-of-state contributors have given Thomas Reilly $630,000 and Deval Patrick $561,000.
While it's true that a greater percentage of Patrick's funds have come from beyond Massachusetts' borders, in terms of actual dollar amounts, it seems that Tom Reilly has actually raised more from out of state. To be sure, I don't think that out-of-state money really matters. It is, unfortunately, often used as a scare tactic or to indicate that the recipient of those funds has no local support, or would be beholden to nebulous far away interests. Neither of these things are true for either Tom Reilly or Deval Patrick, and it would be nice if the Globe spent more time writing about what the candidates want to do once in office than how they plan to win.