Hurricane Katrina has, for the short term, debilitated political fundraising and campaigning efforts on local levels, as candidates divert potential donations to relief organizations.
Senator Rick Santorum's (R-Pa.) re-election campaign temporarily cancelled all fundraising events in response to the disaster.
John Brabender -- who is Santorum's media consultant -- said that the campaign has lost between $750,000 and $1 million as a result.
Brabender said that his campaign was not concerned with the potential financial losses.
"It wasn't a question of how much money," Brabender said. "It was a question of whether it was the right thing to do."
The campaign has since re-commenced its fundraising process.
But Penn Political Science Professor Henry Teune said that the effects of the loss should not be too damaging.
"They have more money than they ought to have, most people think ," Teune said.
"Santorum is well-financed," he added. "Don't worry."
In the long term, Katrina may affect campaigns because donors are likely to view hurricane relief as a more worthy cause than political ambition.
Russ Levsen -- spokesman for South Dakota representative Stephanie Herseth (D-S.D.) -- said he thinks that a decrease in donations is not out of the question for any candidate.
"This is an issue for candidates across the board, that funds that would be given to campaigns are going to the Red Cross for hurricane victims," Levsen said.
Brabender said his campaign's actions were specifically designed to encourage prospective donors to send their money to hurricane relief funds.
"We pulled our direct mail fundraising and all of our phone fundraising for a while ... because we didn't want to compete against people who would be giving to the Red Cross."
Though Brabender said Santorum's campaign did not base its decision off of the actions of other political campaigns, he did criticize Santorum's opponent -- democrat Bob Casey, who is the State Treasurer and Senate hopeful -- for not taking such actions.
Casey's office would not return calls for comment.
Teune said moves such as that made by Santorum's campaign do not usually reflect a long-term commitment to a cause.
"I think it was nice to do that because people's lives were lost, but those kind of gestures are not going to last too long," Teune said.
