By Peter Ricci

The National Association of Realtors spends quite a bit of money advocating Realtor issues, and nowhere are its expenses more prominent than in the realm of politics. In 2012 alone, NAR contributed $2.92 million to political candidates across the country, according to OpenSecrets.

Now that the election has come and gone, though, we thought it prudent to revisit what political candidates, both locally and nationally, NAR supported – and how they fared on election day.

NAR’s Local Political Candidates

The political candidates that NAR supported in the Houston area received hefty – albeit remarkably consistent – sums of money in their reelection bids, and the results of the elections were universally in NAR’s favor. Indeed, all the candidates but one received $4,000 from the trade group, and the one outlier, Al Green of the ninth district, received $4,010. The results were:

• The aforementioned Al Green, a Democrat, was able to stay together with his congressional seat, winning with nearly 80 percent of the vote.
• Gene Green, a Democrat of Texas’ 29th district, did even better, winning with 90 percent of the vote.
• John Culberson, a Republican in the seventh district, won with 60.8 percent of the vote.
• Ted Poe, a Republican serving in the second district, won easily with nearly 65 percent of the vote.
• And Republican Pete Olson, of the 22nd district, won with a similarly strong 64.1 percent.

NAR’s National Political Candidates

The five highest recipients of funds from NAR on the national stage all won in their respective congressional races. Janice Hahn (D-CA), Robert Hurt (R-VA) and Marc Veasey (D-TX) all received $15,000 for their campaigns for the House of Representatives, while Michael G Fitzpatrick (R-PA) and Mark Amodei (R-NV), who also campaigned for the House, received respective amounts of $14,500 and $13,000.