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Advocacy Blog
Friday, December 21, 2007
Study Finds Handful of Industries Dominate Presidential Campaign Contributions
A joint Campaign Finance Institute-Public Citizen study of over 2,000 individuals raising contributions for the 2008 presidential candidates finds that these donations were dominated by just three sectors: law, finance, and real estate .
Their press release on the findings states, "It is impossible to know how much money each industry has provided because, under the current regime of voluntary disclosure, none of the candidates are releasing precise information about how much each of their fundraisers are generating. Furthermore, John Edwards is the only candidate who is disclosing all of his fundraisers, although he is providing no information about how much each has raised. The campaigns of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, and to a lesser extent, Rudy Giuliani, are disclosing some information about how much their bundlers have raised or promised to raise. The sporadic and incomplete reporting by campaigns of their designated fundraisers points to the need for legislation on this matter.
On the basis of this new study, we conclude with confidence that more than half of the people reported as soliciting contributions for the 2008 presidential candidates' campaign coffers come from only five identified industries — three of which are part of the finance sector. Only an extremely thin slice of Americans are mobilizing their financial and social networks to finance the presidential race.
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