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Obama fundraising: not groundbreaking except in scale
Hot Air » Top Picks —
... During the campaign, Barack Obama often bragged about how his campaign got funded by small donors rather than the usual big-money activists in both parties. Indeed, he used that justification for breaking his pledge to adopt public financing for the general election, claiming that his fundraising better represented the modest grassroots. However, a study by the Campaign Finance Institute says that the percentage of small donors to Obama’s campaign was roughly the same as the 2004 effort by George W. Bush: It turns out that Barack Obama’s donors may not have been quite as ...
Yes, Obama's fundraising was a big deal, but the real story is the bodies
The Next Right —
... I am bewildered that some people try to make the arguments that they do. The Campaign Finance Institute argues that, "[i]t turns out that Barack Obama's donors may not have been quite as different as we had thought." ...
Obama's Donor Base: A Partial Revolution, At Best
techPresident —
... This looks and sounds like a revolution in how presidential campaigns can be financed, but now comes a valuable reality check, from the Campaign Finance Institute, run by veteran campaign analyst Michael Malbin. At first glance, the foundation of Obama's fundraising juggernaut looks like no other successful modern presidential campaign: About half of his money, 49% to be precise, came in discrete donations of $200 or less. Typically, winning presidential candidates have relied much more heavily on the proverbial fat-cats, big donors who write four-figure checks and bundle in ...
Report: Obama Didn't Have as Many Small Donors as Was Hyped
Political Punch —
... Report: Obama Didn't Have as Many Small Donors as Was Hyped November 25, 2008 9:26 AM The Campaign Finance Institute issued a "Reality Check" report that demolishes the myth that President-elect Obama was largely funded by small donors. In reality, says the non-partisan group, the percentage of small donors who gave to the Obama campaign -- 26 percent -- is roughly the same as the percentage of small donors who contributed to President Bush's reelection in 2004, 25 percent."It turns out that Barack Obama's donors may not have been quite as different as we had thought," says ...
Repeaters
Ben Smith's Blog —
... The Campaign Finance Institute is out with a study, which it calls a "reality check" and says dramatically undermines the notion that Obama's campaign was driven by small donors. ...
Daily Digest: Reconsidering the Revolution's Small-Donor Base
techPresident —
... A much-discussed new report from the Campaign Finance Institute looks at Barack Obama's fundraising records and calls into question what it calls the "myth" that the campaign was powered by small donors. Indeed, a whopping 49% of the contributions came in small bites -- $200 or less. But, the report finds, just 26% came from donors whose total contributions amounted to less than $200, a figure comparable to that of George Bush, John Kerry, and John McCain. Still, compared to those ...
Obama's small donor base image is a myth, new study reveals
Top of the Ticket —
... "After a more thorough analysis of data from the Federal Election Commission (FEC)," the CFI study says, "it has become clear that repeaters and large donors were even more important for Obama than we or other analysts had fully appreciated." ...
On ‘Myths’, Memes, and Former GOP Media Flunkies
Comments from Left Field —
... The Campaign Finance Institute (CFI) study disclosing that Barack Obama actually raised most of his campaign money from “larger” not “small” donors has gained wide, approving, coverage in recent days, from USA Today to the New York Times and Los Angeles Times and countless web sites, even making Huffington Post at least twice, including as a top link. Inevitably the headlines refer to the “myth” of Obama riding a wave of small donations to victory. That study’s author himself uses it. ...
Damned Lies: Study of Obama Donors Twisted
Politics Daily —
... A new study being touted as an expose´ of the "myth" of Barack Obama's army of small donors is, in fact, a confirmation of it. The analysis of that study, however, is another story entirely. Greg Mitchell at HuffPo has ...
We Should Not Minimize Obama's Fundraising Advantage
The Next Right —
... Several prominent conservatives have sought to minimize the significance of Obama's accomplishment, pointing to this Campaign Finance Institute study showing that Obama's mix of small and high dollar donations was roughly similar to President Bush's in 2004, or pointing to the Obama campaign's poor protections against online credit card fraud. ...
Counting Heads, Not Dollars: A New Campaign Finance Context
techPresident —
(Laura is the deputy director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Social Justice at New York University Law School. We're thrilled to have her analysis of how we should best think about a critical component of this election cycle's fundraising landscape: small donors and small donations. -- the editors)
Ever
since the Campaign Finance Institute (CFI) first published an analysis
of the Obama
small donor numbers
several weeks ago, the ink has been flowing. CFI's central claims
-- that small ...
The arithmetic of news
Belmont Club —
A reader has trouble reconciling the numbers reported in various news stories. “Something,” the reader says, “doesn’t add up.” The problem, I think, could be in the data sources and the news stories themselves. It has always bugged me that the Obama campaign reported raising enormous, unprecedented sums of money from small donors. According this study , Obama’s campaign reports that about 3 million people gave to his campaign, and about 2.5 million gave less than $200. This number sounds about right (I have a better estimate below) given than he raised about $335 million from ...
Holding All the Cards and Still Losing -- By: John J. Pitney Jr.
Articles on National Review Online —
President Obama is plunging in the polls, and his health-care plans face an iffy future on Capitol Hill. His supporters blame right-wing muscle. “I think it is very hard because [Democrats] don’t have the message machine the Republicans do,” says Democratic message guru George Lakoff. Even at the GOP’s 2004 peak, rumors of its omnipotence were greatly exaggerated. Now they are just plain loopy. Democrats hold daunting advantages that American parties have seldom enjoyed. Start with Congress. A few years back, House Democrats complained that the Republican majority was shutting them out of ...
