What does a congressman's vote cost: Scott Brown

Looking at the data on Maplight (data on campaign contributions by company/industry organized by congressman and vote) got me wondering - What does a congressman's vote cost?  Maplight provides data on individual congressmen and votes correlated with campaign contributions made shortly before or after the vote.  Separately I've been interested in the Senate race between Scott Brown (R-Ma) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Ma).  Here's an analysis of Mr. Brown's votes:

Votes	439
Vote follows opinion of contributor	342
% matching contributor	77.90%
Total $ matching contributor	$373,428
$/matching contributor	$1,092

While it is not true that voting consistent with your contributor's opinion is corrupt on its face it is none the less alarming when a senator ostensibly elected to represent the interest of the electorate in his senate district votes almost 78% of the time  following the wishes of campaign contributors.

Mr. Brown is not alone in this behavior.  Here's an analysis of Joe Liberman (I-Ct):

Votes	361
Vote follows opinion of contributor	329
% matching contributor	91.14%
Total matching contributor $	$410,877
$/matching contributor	$1,249

And here's Jeanne Shaheen (D-Nh):

Votes	35
Match contributor position	22
% match contributor position	62.86%
Total $ match contributor position	$25,050
$/match contributor position	$1,139

A couple of things seem apparent.  While the effect campaign contributions have on senators votes, those contributions clearly DO effect votes.  Congress has clearly been bought.  Surprisingly, the cost for a vote is rather low, just a bit more than $1000 on average!  Just a little money seems to go a long way.  This kind of corruption is independent of political party.  While Common Sense didn't look at all congressmen voting behavior was completely consistent among the congressmen analyzed.

If Congress is to represent the electorate it is clearly necessary to get special interest money out of politics.  That's just common sense.

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