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 all the campaign funds raised and reported to the state ethics commission by Commissioner Echols since his current term began in January, 2017. An amount of $105.06 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 are 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 Echols’ Total Influence Dollars date back to the start of his current term, which began in January 2017 when he was re-elected to the Commission. 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:

• With his re-election bid, Commissioner Echols has collected contributions from Influencers at a shockingly higher rate. His percentage of Total Influence Dollars has jumped to 74% of all Itemized Campaign Contributions received.  This is up from 54% from our last report, which was just 12 months ago.
• He has raised $216,095 Influence Dollars in those 12 months.
• He is one of two commissioners with loans to his campaign, which total $8,201.