Originally Posted by
indy_93accordex
Yes, there is an interesting phenomenon with those numbers. Those figures were accumulated over a span of 20 years (1989-2008).
Chris Dodd has been a senator since 1982.
John Kerry has been a senator since 1984.
How did Barack make it to the top of the list within the two short years he served as a senator?
Follow this progression:
1) Barack Obama has raised more money than any other presidential candidate in history- Fact
2) Almost all of his money has been from small donors- Fact
3) He received 120K in small donations from Fannie Mae / Freddy Mac employees- Fact
4) If people have donated individually the same amount that my mother has to his campaign (To pick a loose but real world number), then it would take less than 300 individual donations from people who work for Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac to match 120K. To match what I have donated, it would take about 500.
5) Both of those companies have over 5,000 employees each. So, assuming they have only 5K each (for math sake), and just assume 50% are democrats (for math's sake), if each democrat only donated $25 bucks, then the 120K number would be exceeded.
Barack Obama made it to the top of the list in such a short time because of grassroots funding from individual donors. Obama is near the bottom of the list when it comes to taking money through channels designed to influence policy, and hasn't taken any of the politically influential money since running for president.
While McCain has taken a LOT, and has people who have lobbied for these companies in his top staff.