Want Less Expensive Government? Elect More Women

Another observation from the Statement of Disbursements of the House (July through Sept) -- women congressional representatives often spend less than their male counterparts.

Looking at the year to date spending in the Statement of Disbursements, I noticed that in Pennsylvania Democrats Allyson Schwartz and Kathleen Dahlkemper were both in the lowest quartile of overall spending. Interesting, very interesting, but is this limited to Pennsylvania?

I checked a few other states -- just looking at places that I knew had one or more women in congress.

Nevada
Shelley Berkley -- 980,321
Dean Heller -- 904,997
Dina Titus -- 858,662

Both Berkley and Titus are female so in Nevada both the costliest and least costly congressional reps are women.

Let's keep looking. How about Missouri:

Todd Akin -- 899,741
Roy Blount -- 992,633
Russ Carnahan -- 955,846
William Clay, Jr. -- 942,605
Emanuel Cleaver -- 825,836
Jo Ann Emerson -- 882,339
Sam Graves -- 892,020
Blaine Luetkemeyer -- 877,460
Ike Skelton -- 997,291

Of the 9 Missouri representatives the only woman in the delegation ranks 3rd in frugality. Emerson is a Republican. Not bad, not bad at all.

How about Arizona?

Jeff Flake -- 905,185
Trent Franks -- 945,908
Gabrielle Giffords -- 1,029,661
Raul Grijalva -- 971,054
Ann Kirkpatrick -- 683,588
Harry Mitchell -- 951,193
Ed Pastor -- 874,470

As with Nevada, the costliest and least costly congressional offices in this state are both represented by women. Giffords is a Republican Democrat; Kirkpatrick is a Democrat.

How about Minnesota?

Michelle Bachmann -- 1,065,273
Keith Ellison -- 874,410
John Kline -- 968,362
Betty McCollum -- 888,569
James Oberster -- 1,075,743
Erik Paulsen -- 943,053
Collin C. Peterson -- 914,929
Tim Walz -- 944,350

Bachmann, who heads the second most expensive office in the state is a Republican; McCollum, whose office is the second least expensive is a Democrat.

Let's look at one more, Colorado:
Diana DeGette -- 961,964
Doug Lamborn -- 955,305
Betsy Markey -- 777,111
Ed Perlmutter -- 956,660
Jared Polis -- 1,005,985
John Salazar -- 1,007,358
Mike Coffman -- 941,820
John Shadegg -- 999,325

Of the 8 congressional representatives, Markey and Degette (both Democrats) run the least expensive and 4th least expensive.

This is only 6 of the 50 states but most of the women in the House from these states spend less than their fellows from the same state; though in two of those states the most expensive office is headed by a woman.

I'm not sure what if any conclusions can be drawn from such a small sampling and with some contradictory results, or if spending less is good for their constituents or not, but I think it is a subject that needs more study. If anyone knows a graduate student in political science, give them a nudge in that direction.

For my own part, I look at these numbers and think that women in the House do their jobs for less money, but you could make a case that I am biased.