Barack Obama's Campaign Donors Much Like George Bush's

President-elect Barack Obama built a formidable campaign money machine during the presidential election, raising more money than any single presidential candidate in U.S. history, over $600 million. Obama credited, and the media parrotted, millions of small donors each donating less than $200 for his fund raising prowess. He even referred to this army of contributors as a new kind of public financing system. But a new analysis of Obama's donor base shows that there was no army of small donors. In fact, Obama raised just about the same percentage of his money from small donors as George W. Bush did in his campaign.

The non-partsan Campaign Finance Institute took a look at the numbers and found that Obama raised 26% of his campaign money from donors who gave less than a total of $200. That is just one percent better than Bush's 2004 campaign which raised 25% from the same group. Obama's percentage of small donors only increases if one engages in a bit of rhetorical slight of hand. Obama's finances included many more donors who gave $200 multiple times, including those that approached the legal limit of $4,600 for the primary and the general election. If each individual donation of $200 or less from a single donor is counted as a separate donation from a small donor, Obama's fund raising army begins to materialize. And since that accounting method fit the campaign's image of being grassroots movement of the people, candidate Obama was happy to let the misperception persist.

Obama's decision to forgo the public financing system threatens the existence of the system designed to limit the role of monied interests in campaigns. On the campaign trail, Obama justified his decision to go back on his pledge to accept public money by claiming to collect a great deal of his money from ordinary Americans. But in reality, Obama had just as many high-priced donors as any other candidate. Worse, he appears to have deliberately deceptive about the nature of his record campaign cash haul. The media did not hold Obama accountable, either. Note the erroneous reporting in the linked New York Times article claiming 47% of Obama's contributions came from small donors. The Obama campaign was very careful to craft a particular image of the candidate. Now that he has been elected, Obama may have to work to keep that image from crashing down around him.