In millions of dollars, here is the total amount of money most presidential candidates raised from large donors (those who gave over $1,000) and small donors (those who gave under $200). I left out a few candidates whose fundraising was so small as to not be worth a mention (
source):
| Candidate |
Large Donors |
Small Donors |
| Clinton |
22.2 |
2.27 |
| Obama |
17.5 |
5.77 |
| Romney |
18.3 |
1.23 |
| Giuliani |
13.9 |
1.09 |
| Edwards |
10.8 |
2.04 |
| McCain |
9.9 |
2.54 |
| Richardson |
4.9 |
0.6 |
| Dodd |
3.4 |
0.1 |
| Biden |
1.84 |
0.1 |
| Brownback |
0.4 |
0.75 |
| Tancredo |
0.15 |
0.92 |
| Paul |
0.3 |
0.25 |
| Kucinich |
0.1 |
0.3 |
| All Democrats |
60.70 |
11.12 |
| All Republicans |
44.18 |
6.93 |
This table tells us several things. First, while small donations to Democratic candidates have greatly increased over the past four years, large donors are still firmly in command. Second, Obama completely dominates the field in terms of small donors, as he brought in twice as much from small donors as any other candidate, and over half of all small donor dollars for all Democratic candidates. Third, the Republican grassroots, while small, are not keen on the "frontrunners." For example, minnows Ron Paul, Sam Brownback, and Tom Tancredo combined for as much small donor support as Giuliani and Romney combined. That is pretty stunning when you think about it, as it is the equivalent of Biden, Kucinich and Gravel racking up as much small donor support as Clinton and Edwards combined. That bodes extremely well for the general election, where small donor Republicans seem unlikely to help close the fundraising gap the Republican nominee will apparently face. Also, it is interesting that McCain managed to come in second in terms of small donors. I guess there are still some grassroots activists who actually still believe he is a principled maverick.
Perhaps the most intriguing, and somewhat saddening, lesson from all this is that Democrats managed to pull ahead of Republicans in fundraising, but they did so on the backs of very large donors. Our $4.2M advantage in small donors is nothing compared to our $16.5M advantage in large donors. Without public financing of some sort, or at lest without a reduction in the maximum contribution limit, large donors will control the political money race for the foreseeable future.
Also, Adam B, who sent me an email tipping me off to these numbers,
has a more detailed chart on this subject over at Dailykos.
