How Does Donald Payne Measure Up?
The campaign finance records of U.S. Representative Donald Payne show a consistent difference from other members of Congress over the years: Over and over again, Representative Payne keeps on bringing in less than average the amount of financial donations for members of Congress running for re-election. That was true when the Democrats controlled Congress in the early 1990s, while the Republicans controlled Congress for the following decade, and it’s still true now that the Democrats are back in charge.
Though Don Payne gets less money to run his campaigns than most of his colleagues, he keeps on winning re-election. How?
Congressman Payne is no congressional celebrity. He’s not one of the leaders of the House of Representatives who’s always on television. Instead, Payne puts his head down and gets to work. In particular, he works on the issue of education. Payne has introduced five pieces of legislation to improve education so far this year.
Donald Payne is not the most progressive member of the House of Representatives, but he’s no right wing Blue Dog either. With a progressive action score of 56 out of a possible 100, there are a lot of progressive pieces of legislation that Payne hasn’t supported yet. However, in a more generally progressive Congress, he could become a reliable part of a team to move America forward.
