BARACK AND THE BIG MONEY
November 30, 2007 (Second article in Embarassment of Riches)
Illinois Sen. Barack Obama sounded downright populist when he swung through Austin for a speech and fundraiser on November 17.
“I’m in this race to tell the lobbyists and the big fat cats that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over,” the Democratic presidential candidate told an estimated crowd of 3,500. People had shelled out $25 each and waited in light rain to hear Obama at The Backyard, the outdoor music venue west of Austin. “I’ve done more than any candidate in this race to take on the corporate lobbyists. They have not funded my campaign, they will not work in my White House, and they will not drown out the voices of the American people when I’m president.”
Obama has employed this kind of anti-Washington, anti-fat cat rhetoric in recent weeks to not-so-implicitly criticize Hillary Clinton, New York’s junior senator, who leads Obama by double digits in national polls. Media reports have noted that Obama has positioned himself as the anti-Washington candidate. What most stories haven’t noted is that the numbers back him up.
More than any other Democratic or Republican candidate, big business money has flowed to Clinton’s campaign. Obama has received hardly any contributions from big business political action committees—he’s raised just $6,000 from PACs, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Ninety-nine percent of his $79 million has come from individual contributions. Clinton, by contrast, has received nearly $700,000 in PAC money. Only Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona ($458,000) and Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut ($563,000) come anywhere close to Clinton’s PAC contributions.
(Read the entire article HERE.)
See the details of their political donations - in pie chart form - after the break:
Hillary's collections: http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/summary.asp?id=N00000019&cycle=2008
Source of Funds: (How to read this chart / methodology)
Individual contributions $79,644,559 88%
PAC contributions $748,052 1%
Candidate self-financing $0 0%
PAC Contribution Breakdown: (How to read this chart / methodology)
Business $304,408 56%
Labor $58,600 11%
Ideological/Single Issue $181,484 33%
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Obama's collections: http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/summary.asp?id=N00009638&cycle=2008
Individual contributions $79,218,370 99%
PAC contributions $6,775 0%
Business $3,250 26%
How are the rest of the candidates doing? Check them out here: http://www.opensecrets.org/pres08/index.asp?cycle=2008
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