How Did NAR's Political Candidates Fare in the Election?

by Reno Manuele

November 07, 2012

By Peter Ricci

The National Association of Realtors spends quite a bit of money advocating Realtor issues, and nowhere are its expenses more prominent than in the realm of politics. In 2012 alone, NAR contributed $2.92 million to political candidates across the country, according to OpenSecrets.

Now that the election has come and gone, though, we thought it prudent to revisit what political candidates, both locally and nationally, NAR supported – and how they fared on election day.

NAR’s Local Political Candidates

The political candidates that NAR supported in the Chicagoland area received hefty sums of money in their reelection bids, but interestingly, the results of the elections were not uniformly in their favor:

Peter Roskam, a Republican in Illinois’ sixth congressional district, received $11,000 in contributions from NAR, the most of any politician in the state; Roskam cruised to victory with nearly 60 percent of the vote.
Robert Dold, though, a Republican in the 10th district, lost his seat to Brad Schneider in one of the nation’s most closely-watched races; Dold had received $10,000, tied for the second-most of all Illinois politicians, while Schneider received $1,000, which was tied for the least.
Luis Gutierrez, a Democrat in the fourth district, also received $10,000 from NAR, but he steamrolled to reelection with 83.2 percent of the vote.
Jan Schakowsky, a Democrat in the ninth district, had similar fortunes, with NAR’s $9,300 in contributions helping her win reelection with 66.1 percent of the vote.
It was a sad day for Judy Biggert, though, a Republican in the 11th district who lost by more than 15 points to Bill Foster; Biggert received $9,250 from NAR, while Foster did not receive a contribution from the association.

NAR’s National Political Candidates

The five highest recipients of funds from NAR on the national stage all won in their respective congressional races. Janice Hahn (D-CA), Robert Hurt (R-VA) and Marc Veasey (D-TX) all received $15,000 for their campaigns for the House of Representatives, while Michael G Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Mark Amodei (R-NV), who also campaigned for the House, received respective amounts of $14,500 and $13,000.