Kansas City News Blog

There’s a new feature on the Federal Election Commission’s Web site that allows you to search political contributions to presidential candidates, right down to the zip code. It gives a pretty fascinating look at who your neighbors are supporting in the next election.

To begin, you can search by state, where you can see that Missourians gave $1.9 million. Mitt Romney got the largest slice of the Missouri pie, with $648,750.

Kansans, meanwhile, gave $740,773, about a third less than Missouri. Native son Sam Brownback was the recipient of more donations than any other candidate in Kansas, with $307,184. In fact, Brownback got more donations than all of the Democratic candidates combined.

Go a bit deeper into the stats and you can see exactly who’s giving to which candidate by metro area. For instance, this list shows that Brownback’s biggest contributors in the Kansas City metro area’s Kansas side include EPA attorney Audrey Asher, Interstate Bakeries CEO Charles Sullivan and Straub Construction Executive Ernest J. Straub III.

Over on the Missouri side, this table shows that Romney’s biggest financial supporters include National Beef President Tim M. Klein, Kansas City Southern Senior Vice President Warren K. Erdman and Midland Properties Executive Alan Atterbury.

Still not personal enough? Organize the list by zip code and you can find out exactly how your neighborhood does in donations. For instance, this list shows that one of the bigger contributors to Hillary Clinton’s campaign in Brookside appears to be USDA Farm Service Agency Director Sue R. King, who has given to Clinton four times this year, for a total of $1,075.

At least for now, the system won’t take you right down to your street. For that, you’ll have to wait for FEC.org 2.0. – Eric Barton