President Obama Outpacing Own Record Four Years Ago of Pulling In Small Donations - Nearly Half

[bigtree]

Last edited Wed Feb 8, 2012, 09:32 PM - Edit history (1)

Wednesday, February 8, 1:06 PM

Obama fundraising powered by small donors, new study shows

____ Nearly half of the donors to Obama’s reelection campaign in 2011 gave $200 or less, more than double the proportion seen in 2007, according to the analysis from the Campaign Finance Institute, which tracks money in politics.

Just 9 percent of donors to possible GOP front-runner Mitt Romney, by contrast, were at the lowest end of the contribution scale, the study shows.

In fact, Obama raised more money in aggregate from small-dollar donors — $56.7 million — than Romney raised overall . . .

Obama had raised only 22 percent of $96.7 million in 2007 from donors whose contributions aggregated to $200 or less, the CPI study found. That number shot up to 48 percent in 2011.


read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-fundraising-powered-by-small-donors-new-study-shows/2012/02/08/gIQANfKIzQ_print.html

[bigdarryl]

1. And big Ed and some other fake Progressives are crying about the rethugs CPACS

[Romulox]

2. OK. But most of his money will come from corporations. Just like last time. nt

[bigtree]

3. that isn't anything new. The percentage of small donors is though

It’s harder to accurately gauge Obama’s reliance on upper end donors because this year he is able to raise money jointly with the Democratic National Committee, which can accept donations of up to $30,800 per donor.

Obama’s campaign committee raised $33.4 million from donors giving $1,000 or more last year, compared to $57.9 million from such donors in 2007. However, Obama also helped raise $89 million in a joint effort with the DNC, meaning the actual proportion of larger donors is much higher.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-fundraising-powered-by-small-donors-new-study-shows/2012/02/08/gIQANfKIzQ_print.html

[Obama3_16]

5. so what? this is a greater percentage of small donations than virtually any modern president

that should mean something to anyone.

[Romulox]

7. notsureifserious: "so what"? nt

[TheWraith]

9. Um, no. First off, corporations can't make candidate contributions.

Secondly, even if you throw in PACs and soft money, the overwhelming majority of Obama's money last time came from individual small donors.

[Romulox]

10. No, you're incorrect. He may have gotten *more numerous* donations from small donors, but most of h

biggest contributors were PACs, bundlers, and lobbying groups, when taken in absolute dollar terms.

[AlinPA]

4. These amounts ($56.7M,$96.7M..) are only peanuts compared to what the republicans will get

because of the Citizens United ruling. The GOP can get tens of billions from corporations' deep pockets. The Kochs alone are easily able to dump a few 100 million into the GOP.

[Obama3_16]

6. Obama will get billions from corporations and Unions in his affiliated Super Pacs as well

I wouldn't worry tooooo much about it.

Just Bill Gates, George Soros, and Warren Buffett could dwarf anything the Koched up Brothers & cronies come up with.

[AlinPA]

11. Gates and Buffett don't give to SuperPACs as far as I know. Billions from Unions?

They don't have billions to give.

[bigtree]

8. that's why the party and campaign are opening the door for their own big donors

Hopefully we can stay in the game . . .


About 40% of the campaign ads related to the 2012 election so far have been funded by secret donors whose identity may never be known.

By declaring themselves to be “social welfare” groups concerned with policies rather than politics, these groups are allowed to spend up to half of their funds on election activities without disclosing their donors.

The Washington Post reports that conservative groups opposing President Barack Obama have spent the “bulk” of the anonymous funds to date—more than $24 million. These Republican-oriented organizations include the Karl Rove-created Crossroads GPS, and Americans for Prosperity, a Washington-based group connected to the conservative brothers who run the Koch Industries oil-and-gas conglomerate.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-fundraising-powered-by-small-donors-new-study-shows/2012/02/08/gIQANfKIzQ_print.html


The rule of thumb for social-welfare groups, business groups and other nonprofits is that they must spend less than half their budget on election activities to avoid disclosure of donors. Many nonprofits contend that that leaves them free to spend the rest of their budget on “issue ads,” which often include scathing and pointed attacks on individual politicians but don’t explicitly tell viewers how to vote.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-money-is-funding-more-election-ads/2012/02/03/gIQAfTxEuQ_print.html

[bigtree]

12. :

[Scurrilous]

13. K & R