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Paul Tonko

Paul Tonko

U.S. Representative for New York's 20th districtD-NY-20

Official website ↗

669

recorded votes

5

bills sponsored

78

cosponsored

1%

votes missed

2009

first took office

The numbers

based on decisive floor votes
—

Agrees with you

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83%

Kept their word

5 kept · 1 broken

—

Sides with constituents

not enough local votes yet

98%

Votes with party

656 roll calls

“Agrees with you” compares your recorded position on a bill against this member's vote on the bill's decisive roll call — passage or an equivalent up-or-down vote, not procedural motions. Abstentions are excluded rather than counted as disagreement.

Who funds them

FEC filings, 2024 + 2026 cycles

$1.7M

from PACs

942

contributions

$3,640

routed through organizations

$692

spent supporting them

Individual money routed through organizations

not the organization's own money

This is individuals' money, not the organization's. Supporters write checks earmarked for a named candidate, the organization collects them and passes them on — so it isn't bound by the PAC limits above, and it doesn't come out of the organization's own funds. It is still worth knowing: somebody chose this candidate and did the gathering.

A PAC can give a candidate up to $10,000 per election cycle — $5,000 for the primary and $5,000 for the general — so totals spanning two cycles run to about $20,000 at the top end. Occasional larger figures usually mean a special election or a runoff, which counts as another election.

Money moved between committees the candidate controls — a House campaign fund transferred to a Senate run, for instance. It isn't a donation from anyone and isn't counted as one.

The PAC figures above are the organizations' own contributions only. Earmarked money they merely carried is listed separately, and independent expenditures separately again — they aren't gifts to the campaign, and money spent against a member would otherwise appear as backing. Source: FEC bulk filings ↗

Individuals vs PACs

FEC filings, 2026 cycle
From individuals$337k · 16%
From PACs$1.7M · 84%

21%

from outside New York

47%

in gifts under $200

8

maximum contributions

$177k

itemised, from 354 gifts

That's state, not district. ZIP codes straddle congressional districts, so placing a donation inside one would be a guess — and this site doesn't guess. For a House member, treat the out-of-state figure as a floor: some of the in-state money came from outside the district too.

Where their donors work

  • Arnold Ventures3 donors$11k
  • Poet Pac2 donors$7,000
  • Guide Consulting Services2 donors$5,000
  • Plug Power Inc.6 donors$2,750
  • Open Space Institute5 donors$2,500
  • Golub Corporation3 donors$2,250
  • Hippo's Home Entertainment2 donors$2,000
  • Ny State Broadcasters Association1 donor$2,000
  • Nys Public Employees Federation49 donors$1,630
  • Albany County27 donors$1,555

Grouped from what donors wrote in the employer box on their own filing. It's free text, so “retired”, “self” and “homemaker” are dropped rather than dressed up as employers — and one employer can appear twice under two spellings, because merging them would mean guessing which spellings mean the same thing. A company listed here has given nothing itself; its employees have, as individuals.

Maximum donors

People who gave at least one full election maximum — 8 such contributions in total. The largest 5 are listed.

  • BROIN, JEFFSD$7,000
  • LINDEN, LAWRENCE H.CA$7,000
  • ARNOLD, JOHNTX$7,000
  • ARNOLD, LAURATX$3,500
  • GOTTESMAN, SALLYNY$3,500

Name and state only — no address, no employer, and no way to search for a person on this site. These are public FEC filings, but someone who gave $3,500 is a private citizen, not a public official, and the point of listing them is to show who funds a politician rather than to build a directory of donors.

Individual giving is aggregated by the FEC and read from its API — including the $160k given in amounts under $200, which never appears in the bulk download because donors under that threshold aren't named. Source: FEC ↗

When a donor said what it wanted

44 bills
45%

Voted with donors

20 of 44

Across 44 bills where an organization that gave Tonko money publicly stated what it wanted, and Tonko cast a recorded vote. Those organizations gave $492k in total.

Read this carefully: it counts only bills where the organization itself stated a position, in its own lobbying filing or a public statement, and where the member cast a recorded vote. VoteWire never guesses what a donor wanted. And alignment is not influence — PACs overwhelmingly give to members who already vote their way, so a high number more often reflects who chose whom than who bought whom. The full method.

Did they keep their word?

stated position vs. recorded vote

Fair warning on reading this section: a bill can change a great deal between the day a member adds their name to it and the day it reaches the floor. Voting against a bill you cosponsored is sometimes a reversal and sometimes a reasonable response to an amendment — which is why every row links to the official record instead of just handing you a verdict.

Recent votes on bills

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BillDateThey votedYou
H.R. 9497 Water Resources Development Act of 2026

On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, as Amended

Sep 16, 2026Yeaweigh in
H.R. 9576 National Fraud Enforcement Division Act of 2026

On Passage

Sep 16, 2026Nayweigh in
H.R. 9340 Ratepayer Protection Act

On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, as Amended

Sep 16, 2026Yeaweigh in
H.R. 5334 Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026

On Motion to Concur in the Senate Amendments

Sep 16, 2026Yeaweigh in
H.J.Res. 213 Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule issued by the Environmental Protection Agency relating to the "California State Nonroad Engine Pollution Control Standards; Commercial Harbor Craft Regulations; Notice of Decision".

On Passage

Sep 16, 2026Nayweigh in
H.R. 10326 Preventing Rip-offs and Obtaining Oversight of Funds Act

On Passage

Sep 16, 2026Nayweigh in
S. 2403 Retire through Ownership Act

On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass

Sep 16, 2026Yeaweigh in
H.R. 9500 Tax Relief for Fraud Victims Act

On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, as Amended

Sep 15, 2026Yeaweigh in
H.R. 8278 Fostering the Use of Technology to Uphold Regulatory Effectiveness in Supervision Act

On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, as Amended

Sep 15, 2026Yeaweigh in
H.Res. 1530 Providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 9576) to establish the National Fraud Enforcement Division of the Department of Justice; providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 10326) to enhance information-sharing capabilities between Federal law enforcement and State agencies to detect, investigate, and prosecute fraud in certain Federal programs, and to protect individual privacy; providing

On Agreeing to the Resolution

Sep 15, 2026Noweigh in
H.R. 2140 Diesel Emissions Reduction Act of 2025

On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass

Sep 15, 2026Yeaweigh in
H.Res. 1486 Impeaching Donald John Trump, President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors.

On Motion to Table

Sep 15, 2026Nayweigh in
H.Con.Res. 93 Directing the President, pursuant to section 5(c) of the War Powers Resolution, to remove United States Armed Forces from hostilities with Iran.

On Agreeing to the Resolution

Sep 15, 2026Yeaweigh in
H.R. 2978 Guarding Unprotected Aging Retirees from Deception Act of 2026

On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, as Amended

Sep 15, 2026Yeaweigh in
H.R. 4646 Whistleblower Protection Act of 2025

On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, as Amended

Sep 15, 2026Yeaweigh in
H.J.Res. 210 Providing for congressional disapproval under chapter 8 of title 5, United States Code, of the rule submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency relating to "California State Nonroad Engine Pollution Control Standards; Ocean-Going Vessels At-Berth; Notice of Decision".

On Passage

Sep 15, 2026Nayweigh in
H.R. 3276 Local Communities & Bird Habitat Stewardship Act of 2026

On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, as Amended

Sep 14, 2026Yeaweigh in
H.R. 4219 National Wildlife Refuge System Invasive Species Strike Team Act of 2025

On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass, as Amended

Sep 14, 2026Yeaweigh in
H.R. 4795 Protect Economic and Academic Freedom Act of 2026

On Passage

Sep 3, 2026Nayweigh in
H.J.Res. 1 Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to require that the Supreme Court of the United States be composed of nine justices.

On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass

Sep 2, 2026Nayweigh in
H.R. 1501 Protecting Domestic Mining Act of 2025

On Passage

Sep 2, 2026Nayweigh in
H.Res. 1499 Providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 1501) to amend the FAST Act to include certain mineral production activities as a covered project, and for other purposes; providing for consideration of the bill (H.R. 9436) to amend the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2023 to extend the time period for which certain regulations concerning the North Atlantic right whale are effective; providing for c

On Agreeing to the Resolution

Sep 1, 2026Noweigh in
H.R. 6500 Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2027

On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Concur in the Senate Amendments

Sep 1, 2026Nayweigh in
H.R. 9436 Northeast Lobsterman Protection Act of 2026

On Passage

Sep 1, 2026Nayweigh in
H.Res. 1490 Providing for the condemnation and denouncement of socialism in all its forms, and for other purposes.

On Agreeing to the Resolution

Sep 1, 2026Nayweigh in

Bills they sponsored