04.19b Kerry's Charity; A Research Idea; Regression Analysis Looking at Tax Returns of Politicians from Safe Seats. The York article "How Did He Make That Money? Questions about the senator’s book and art deals": discusses Senator Kerry's political contributions. They were small when he was just senator from a safely Democratic state, but increased markedly as he became a Presidential prospect.

On another matter, the Kerry campaign complained about NRO's description of the senator's charitable giving over the years. An article yesterday included the fact that in 1995, Kerry reportedly had a taxable income of $126,179, and made charitable contributions of $0. The article also said that Kerry made relatively small charitable donations in the four years before that.

For the record, Kerry's charitable contributions in recent years -- he has just released his returns from 1999 to 2003 -- have been far higher. In his 2003 federal return, Kerry reported charitable donations of $43,735 on a total income of $395,338. In 2002, Kerry made charitable contributions of $18,600 on a total income of $144,091. In 2001, Kerry gave $22,370 to charity on a total income of $137,499. In 2000, he gave $19,221 on a total income of $137,012. And in 1999, he contributed $21,955 to charity on a total income of $140,928.

It would be interesting to do regression analysis on this this for politicians with different margins of victory.

[in full at 04.04.19b.htm]

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