Follow the Money

Follow the money, isn’t that what they say? Well, you can do this to your heart’s desire at the Center for Responsive Politics (http://www.opensecrets.org). There is information on individual and political action committee (PAC), and other contributions for 2007 for congressional races and the campaign for President. There are many specifics that one can’t track down on the site because of bundling and the bewildering vagaries of campaign finance laws but you can see that the top two Democrats—Clinton and Obama—have many more donors and are making a lot more money than McCain and Romney. Clinton and Obama together earned an incredible $217 million in donor or PAC contributions in 2007 to $89.8 million for McCain and Romney over the this period (does not include the $ that Romney contributed to his own campaign). You can even see what your neighbor or boss has/has not contributed.

The difference among money raised for the remaining Democrats and Republicans is astounding and for January 2008 will be even greater. These figures haven’t been reported formally to the Federal Election Commission yet but Obama’s staff is saying informally that his campaign took in approximately $1 million a day in January of 2008. Clinton has said nothing about her totals for January but she won’t be too far behind that number. As for McCain and Romney? According to the site, Ron Paul earned more money than they did over the last 3 months of the year, and, was, in fact, the top earner of donated dollars (Romney beat him over this period because he poured (at least) $35 million of his own money into his campaign). McCain was on life support for nearly all of 2007, even having to take out a $3 million loan in November, just to keep the “Straight Talk Express” from becoming silenced forever. Things no doubt are changing as we speak and he certainly should have more money once it is clear that he will be the Party’s candidate.

The differences in number of contributers and total dollars that Democrats are receiving over Republicans, coupled with the much larger voter turnouts Democrats are getting should be important indications of how Democrats will fare in November, both in the Presidential and congressional races. I’ll look at such numbers more closely throughout the various campaigns but for now here are some fun, if perhaps meaningless, facts from the site (all dollar amounts are for 2007):

--Ron Paul earned more contributions over the last three months of 2007 than any other Republican candidate.
--Rudy Giuliani earned more contributions over 2007 (approximately $60 million) than any other Republican and received exactly one delegate
--Caroline Kennedy contributed $2300 to Hillary Clinton in June, before contributing the same amount to Obama in September. Is she hedging her bets or does this reflect her switch in allegiance (she now publicly supports Obama)?
--Henry (“Hammerin' Hank”) Aaron contributed $2300 to Hillary Clinton.
--Peyton Manning contributed $2300 to Fred Thompson (don’t let this guy wager your money on tomorrow’s Super Bowl victor).
--Billie Jean King gave Clinton $2300.
--Sidney Poitier and Ellen Pompeo each gave Obama $4600.
--Susan Sarandon spread the wealth around contributing to Obama, Edwards, and Bill Richardson (remember him?), giving Obama the most money—a total of $2000

What may be most interesting is who didn’t contribute in 2007. Where are all those personal donations from cash-heavy celebrities who so conspicuously voice their support for the candidates?

If you take a look at the site and find anything interesting—like George W. Bush contributing $ to Hillary Clinton, or who Dr. Phil is betting on—let me know.