The limits of money’s influence on politics comes down to voters. Are they easily shaped by all the ads, fliers, text messages and more?

And even if voters do their best to filter out the pitches, there’s another issue. Do the dollars poured into campaigns buy too much influence for those who can afford to donate and distort the system?

Who donates to whom may be the best way to look at campaign money. And so we did in the race for Oregon’s 5th Congressional District between incumbent Lori Chavez-DeRemer, a Republican, and Democratic challenger Janelle Bynum, a four-term state legislator.

Chavez-DeRemer has raised more. That makes sense, in a way. She is an incumbent and it has long been clear she would be the Republican candidate. She raised $4 million from Jan. 1, 2023 through June 30, 2024. She had spent about $1.7 million. Bynum raised $2.4 million between June 21, 2023 and June 30, 2024. She had spent about $1.3 million.

Most of Chavez-DeRemer’s money came from outside Oregon, about 80%. And most of Bynum’s money has come from outside Oregon as well, again about 80%. Each raised about 20% from inside Oregon, the largest haul of any state.

It’s too early to say who the biggest donors to each campaign will be. But Chavez-DeRemer has received some large support from the political action committee of the National Association of Realtors, Nike and the National Airline Pilots Association. Bynum has received large amounts from Mass General Brigham, a health care system; English Munger and Rice, a law firm; and Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

What members of Congress have told us again and again is money can get access and a politician’s time. It doesn’t turn the politician into a paid puppet, but maybe a politician will make the time to listen to a large donor on an issue important to them.

You can track the contributions in this race at fec.gov. Another good site to look at can be opensecrets.org, which attempts to distill some of the information to make the data easier to understand.