Percentage of Influence Dollars: This percentage is based on the campaign donations identified by the Project as being from “influencers” (lobbyist expenditures are not included) divided by the Total Itemized Campaign Funds Raised.

Total Campaign Funds Raised: This dollar amount is the total of itemized campaign funds raised and reported to the state ethics commission by Commissioner McDonald since January 2015. An amount of $20,994.52 was subtracted from the total of campaign contributions listed on his campaign finance reports because that is the amount of funds carried over from the campaign for his previous term. For this project, this number also does not include loans from the candidate to the campaign or aggregated campaign contributions under $100 because the sources of those funds are not reported per campaign finance law and therefore are not able to be tracked as influence dollars or not. The amount does include itemized in-kind contributions, which are presented separately on the campaign finance report.

Total Influence Dollars: the combination of all lobbyist expenditures plus campaign contributions from individuals and entities that we have identified as those regulated by the PSC, have a business relationship with an entity regulated by the PSC or are looking to influence a decision made by the PSC. Commissioner McDonald’s Total Influence Dollars date back to the start of his pervious term, which began in January 2015. Some campaign donors could not be immediately identified as influencers and will require additional research to uncover any relationships that would make them an “influencer”, so check back often as we expect this number to grow.

Notes of Interest:

• Commissioner McDonald was re-elected in 2020 with a lot of help from PSC Influencers, he has the second highest percentage of Influence Dollars of any current commissioner with 81%.
• He has the second-highest average of lobbyist expenditures per year of the 5 commissioners, with $1,203.54 of lobbyist paid lunches, dinners and other gifts per year.