Small Donors Play Huge Role
Apr 10th, 2008 at 10:50 am by Susie
While Obama has still raised more than twice what Clinton has in small donations, I was interested to see in this Boston Globe article the gap is closing - as of February, the $200 or less donors had become 52% of Clinton’s donors, compared to Obama’s 56%.
This is a good thing. The GOP money machine was oiled for a long time by small donors and, thanks to the internet, the Dems are now getting that kind of solid support:
In the 2004 race, President Bush and Senator John F. Kerry each raised about $80 million from donors giving $200 or less. But up to this point in the 2008 race, small donors have given far more to Democrats.
Susan James, a 56-year-old out-of-work accountant in Phoenix, had never made a campaign contribution before giving to Clinton, whom she respects for competing in a “man’s world.”
James gave the New York senator $230 in chunks through February, and, like many small donors, said she now feels invested in Clinton’s candidacy.
“You do feel a sense of ownership in the campaign when you see the clips of Hillary on TV, or you see the clips of the ads,” said James, who also signed up to call voters on Clinton’s behalf. “Even though it’s a small part, you can say, ‘I’m playing a part.’ I’ve never felt this connected.”
Brad Agar, a 30-year-old restaurant manager from Kent, Ohio, feels invested in Obama, to whom he had given $208 through February.
“Those little donations add up to a big thing, and that’s what I feel politics is about - millions of people coming together to do something big,” he said.
Many donors say they never imagined being this involved in a presidential campaign.
And when Obama decides to decline public financing, he will probably use this information to make his case; by virtue of the hundreds of thousands of small donors giving to his campaign, he is already publicly financed.
he has already been making that argument and claiming that he has set up his own “public” financing.
It will be nice to have more $$$ than the GOP for a change.
Before we get excited about his financing we had better check out Oprah’s website.
http://www.oprah.com/community/thread/48373
Here’s a partial list of ‘the little people’ donating to Obama’s campaign…
Simply amazing that people actually swallow the notion that Obama is running a campaign funded by small donations.
white_n_az: I’ll say this for you; no matter how many straw men you’ve created, you always have enough straw in reserve for many, many more. Believe it or not, we Obama supporters understand no one runs a national campaign on $2.00 donations from Aunt Irene and Uncle Fred. Perhaps you were shocked to find out he’s accepted corporate donations, but please, don’t transfer your naïveté onto us.