The Grass Roots Factor

The public disclosure commission’s new website allows us to easily look at a campaign’s cash contributions.

We can now quickly determine a campaign’s Grass Roots Factor: that is, the amount of folks it takes for a campaign to raise a $1000 dollars. You simply take the total number of contributors, divide by the total cash amount, and multiply by $1000.

[Grass Roots Factor] = ([Total contributors] / Total Cash Amount] ) X $1000

A grass roots campaign draws its strength from numbers, not from money. Therefore, a grass roots campaign will raise its money from numerous modest contributions. Grass roots campaigns have high grass roots factors, because it takes a lot of contributors to get a $1000.

Money driven campaigns tend to rely on a few big donors to cover most of their costs. They will have a much lower grass roots factor. It only takes a few contributors to get to a $1000.

The results are below. I leave out Position 3, since one candidate has chosen the minimal reporting option.






The conclusion is obvious. Michael Plunkett and Diane Buckshnis are running grass roots campaigns. Priya Cloutier and Strom Peterson are not.