Top 10 Political Contributors and Who Gets Their Money

Below are the 10 most generous contributors to political campaigns from 1990-2006, according to the most recent data from the Center for Responsive Politics (OpenSecrets.org). Also given are the percentages of those contributions that went to Democrats and Republicans. (Information on contributions to 2008 presidential candidates is not yet available for all organizations.) The organizations themselves did not donate, rather the money came from the organizations’ PACs, individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals’ immediate families.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=22517

I did a little number crunching .

In the Totals for 1990-2006, a total of $290,399,724.45 was given to the Democrats and Republicans by these top 10 contributors. However, as noted “The organizations themselves did not donate, rather the money came from the organizations’ PACs, individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals’ immediate families.” Of this 290 million plus dollars, $231,565,499.50 (80%) was given to the Democrats while $58,834,224.95 (20%) was given to the Republicans.

The biggest contributor to the Democrats was $37,899,980.02 by American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees. The biggest contributor to the Republicans was $21,322,613.76 by AT&T Inc.

Do people generally have a choice about giving their money to unions?

I know that in Washington, they don't.

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Es muß, es muß geschieden sein

My understanding is that some states have union shops in which a union eligible worker must join the union. However, there is no such requirement in states with open shops. I believe that the union vs open shops is on the state level.

Stats don't include individual donations. In 2004 alone George Soros, Steve Bing, Peter Lewis and Marion and Herb Sandler gave Democrats over $75,000,000.

There are no individual donors to the GOP who write out checks as large as those 5 people do.

There is also the matter of in-kind contributions. The hit pieces on the Bush adminstration and the puff pieces on liberals the New York Times has published over the last 7 years, would have cost millions if the Democratic Party had to buy advertising space for them (and they were, essentially, ads).