MAPLight, a public-interest research group that looks at the connections between money and politics, says that most of the money donated to members of Congress comes from Washington or DC-area zip codes. What does that mean? It means PACs and lobbyists -- and not their constituents -- are financing the bulk of the re-election campaigns of members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Close to 80 percent of all donations came from outside the districts that the candidates represent, according to MAPLight's findings. The organization looked at donations over a three-year period through the end of last year.

Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland, the House Majority leader, led the delegation, with 94 percent of his donations received from out-of-district donors. Elijah Cummings, who represents Baltimore, got 88 percent of his donations from outside his district, as did Dutch Ruppersberger. Three-quarters of Roscoe Bartlett's came from outside his district, 72 percent of John Sarbanes' and 48 percent of Chris Van Hollen's. Wayne Gilchrest didn't even make MAPLight's list.

"The research reveals that representatives raised $700 million in campaign funds from January 2005 to December 2007," the organization reported. "Some $551 million of these funds, or 79%, came from out-of-district."

"Instead of a voting democracy, we have a dollar democracy--may the biggest-spending special-interest win," said Daniel Newman, MAPLight.org's co-founder and executive director. "To win an election, a House candidate has to raise an average of $1.3 million in campaign funds. That's $2,500 every working day for an entire two-year term. With such a herculean fundraising effort required, what time and attention do Representatives have left to address the interests of the voters they represent? We, as citizens, pay House members' salaries, we pay to run elections and we pay for all their spending decisions. However, we, as citizens, have handed special-interests the remote control, forcing our potential leaders to grovel before PAC leaders and lobbyists to raise the funds needed to win elections."

MAPLight.org's research team analyzed contributions to all legislators from each state and from Washington. DC is the top location for contributors; it is the source of $146,807,711, which is 21% of all contributions. Washington and its surrounding areas, of course, are home to scores of lobbying firms and political action committees. Of the top 20 Zip codes contributing to U.S. House members, 15 are in Washington and its surrounding areas. For nearly all House members (418 out of 421), Washington was among their top 5 contributing states.

"With out-of-district fundraising at a staggering 80%, the problem is not with a few individual House members," said Newman. "This report shows that our campaign finance system is broken. This remote control system works well for big oil and Wall Street, but not for voters. We as citizens need to grab the remote control back from the hands of big-money interest groups. We need to reform our broken system so that representatives can focus on voters, not dialing long-distance for dollars."

Funds Raised from Out-of-District:

Almost all House members, 97%, raised more than half of their funds from outside their congressional districts.

Five House members raised 99% or more of their funds from outside their congressional districts.

Only 13 House members, or 3%, raised most of their funds from within the district where their voters live.

Top Contributing Zip Codes:

For a list of the top 100 Zip codes and their contribution amounts, see Table 2 of the report, Remote Control.