Hillary Clinton's Fundraising Juggernaut

With the word out that Vice President Joe Biden considering a run for the Oval Office in 2016, I thought that now was a good time to take a detailed look at who is backing his main rival, Hillary Clinton.

According to Open Secrets, as of June 30, 2015, this is how much Hillary Clinton has raised and spent:

Ms. Clinton has raised nearly three times as much as her closest Democratic competitor and spent nearly four times as much.  Of the total of $47,553,801 raised, 99 percent has come from individual contributions with 17 percent or $8,098,546 of individual donations coming in the form of small contributions and 82 percent or $38,840,036 coming in the form of large contributions.  PACs have contributed a total of $33,396 and Hillary Clinton has self-funded her run to the tune of $278,821 or less than 0.6 percent of the total raised. 

The donation size information is quite interesting.  A total of 10,311 donors have each donated more than $2700 for a total of $28.86 million.  By way of comparison, a total of 5,693 donors have donated between $200 and $400 for a total of only $1.534 million.

As shown in this table, there are three main campaign and outside committees that are backing Hillary Clinton:

Here is a pie chart showing which states have contributed the most to Ms. Clinton in this election cycle:

The top five metropolitan areas by level of contribution include:

New York - $5,897,764

Washington, DC - $4,708,710

Los Angeles - $3,841,120

San Francisco - $2,116,359

Chicago - $1,703,175

Here is a table showing the top industries that have contributed to Ms. Clinton thus far in the 2016 cycle:

Lastly, here are the top contributors:

As you can see, Wall Street, American academia and Hollywood are represented.  As well, for those of you who aren't aware, let's give a bit of background info on the top three donors:

1.) Morgan and Morgan touts itself as a leading personal injury law firm that is "dedicated to protecting the people, not the powerful", nonetheless, it seems quite willing to cosy up to the potentially powerful.  They recovered $90.2 million in a lawsuit against R.J. Reynolds tobacco in one settlement and a further $90.8 million in another suit against the same company.  Morgan and Morgan was founded in Orlando, Florida and has offices throughout the southeast United States.

2.) Sullivan and Cromwell is a legal firm with headquarters in Manhattan, "in the heart of the Financial District".  The company has more than 550 lawyers in the New York office alone.  From the information available on its website, the firm appears to specialize in corporate and financial law.

3.) Akin, Gump et al is an international law firm located in Washington, D.C. with offices throughout the United States and other nations around the world.  It is the largest lobbying firm by revenue in the United States.

If we compare Ms. Clinton's fundraising efforts thus far in the 2016 Presidential cycle, she is leaving her competition in the dust with the exception of Bernie Sanders who is actually doing quite well, particularly from small individual contributors who have donated 69 percent of the candidates individual contributions:

Lincoln Chafee - raised $39,743  spent - $63,757

Martin O'Malley - raised $2,006,905  spent - $692,769

Bernie Sanders - raised $16,426,081  spent - $4,764,556

Jim Webb - no totals available - Super PAC - $20,577

Joe Biden - no totals available - Super PAC - $85,880

I have included the undeclared Joe Biden in this list for completeness sake.

If money buys the Oval Office, other than Mr. Sanders, it looks like the rest of the Democratic field has its work cut out for it if they hope to catch up to Ms. Clinton's fundraising juggernaut.

Presidential Campaign Fundraising - August 2012 Update

Date of FEC Report - July 31, 2012

I find that sometimes the mainstream media tends to focus on the big donors to the Presidential campaigns rather than looking at the bigger picture.  In this posting, I'll be sourcing my data from OpenSecrets, a website maintained by the Center for Responsive Politics which takes a hard, non-partisan look at campaign financing.

Let's open by looking at individual contributions to the Obama and Romney campaigns and what portion of those donations is coming from large and small donors current to the Federal Election Commission data release on August 6th, 2012, noting that donations that are $200 or less are considered "small" since campaigns do not have to register any personal information about these donors:

The Obama campaign is getting 39.2 percent of its donations from small individual contributors and 60.7 percent from large individual contributors.  In sharp contrast, the Romney campaign has received only 19.1 percent of its donations from small individual contributors and 80.3 percent from large individual contributions.

Let's look at a few additional details about the current President's donors.

Here are the four largest donor states, their total donation and percentage of the total:

Donors from New York City have donated $15.304 million, Washington D.C. $12.775 million and Los Angeles $10.273 million.

The top five industries donating to the incumbent are retirees ($27.065 million), lawyers and law firms ($15.394 million), education ($9.178 million), health professionals ($4.976 million) and business services ($4.548 million).

Here is a list of the top ten organizations who have contributed to the Obama campaign this cycle, noting that the money came from the organization's PACs, individual members, employees or owners not the organization itself:

Thus far, the Obama campaign has spent $262,968,849 and has $87,747,678 on hand.  Of that, $109.1 million was spent on media expenses, $71.3 million was spent on administration, $19.1 million was spent on campaign expenses and $9.1 million was spent on fundraising.  GMMB was the biggest beneficiary of this spending, receiving $71.947 million thus far in the 2012 cycle.  In case you wonder who GMMB is, here's what they say about themselves:

"We are societal problem solvers. Engineers of social change. Activists. And realists. We have a point of view that keeps our compass pointed in the direction of progress. If we're working with you, it's because we're passionate about what you believe—we believe it too. It's what drives us in everything we do."

Whatever.

Now, lets look at a few details about the Romney campaign donors.

Here are the four largest donor states, their total donation and percentage of the total:

Donors from New York City have donated $9.574 million, Washington D.C. $6.890 million and Boston $5.452 million.

The top five industries donating to the Romney campaign are retirees ($26.159 - damn those wealthy retirees again!), securities and investment ($11.458 million), lawyers and law firms ($6.797 million), real estate ($6.501 million) and miscellaneous finance ($4.373 million).  It is interesting but not surprising to see that Mr. Romney's former financial industry comrades-in-arms are among his biggest donors.

Here is a list of the top fifteen organizations who have contributed to the Romney campaign, noting again that the money did not come from the organization itself:

I added a few more than just the top ten since I wanted to show you where Bain Capital fit in.  It is interesting to see that this list is composed of a who's who of Wall Street and the fraction of a percent of Americans who represent the banking industry, you know, the one that just about caused the world's economy to implode four short years ago requiring a trillion dollar taxpayer bailout.

Thus far, the Romney campaign has spent $163,205,427 and has $30,181,373 on hand.  Of that, $43.1 million was spent on media expenses, a whopping $34.6 million was spent on fundraising, $28.6 million was spent on administration and $23.2 million was spent on campaign expenses .  I must say that I was rather surprised to see that 26.4 percent of all funds spent were used to help raise more funds, a far cry from the Obama campaign's fundraising expenditures of only 4 percent of the total spent.  American Rambler Productions LLC was the biggest beneficiary of all of this spending, raking in $40.891 million.  American Rambler is a Delaware-registered consultancy that manages multiple strategists from its office in Beverly Massachusetts.  Apparently, according to this website, American Rambler was a firm that was set up to do Romney's advertising and media buying.  Other than that, very little information is available; try Googling American Rambler Productions and see how little information is out there!  Even this link to American Rambler's website is secure, requiring a login.

It is interesting to see how American campaign financing has become big business, especially for some of the firms on the receiving end of campaign dollars.  I hope that you enjoyed this little trip down campaign lane.  As time passes, I will update and repost this  information because an informed voter is a better voter.

Now They're After Granny's Birthday Money

We all know that the Obama and Romney campaigns have raised a massive amount of money so far during this election cycle.  According to the Federal Election Commission website, here's a look at how much money PACs have raised this cycle by organization and type:

Here's how much both the national Republicans and the Democrats have raised, spent and have on hand for this election cycle:

The Democrats have raised just under $356 million and spent $278 million.  The Republicans have raised nearly $321 million and spent $206 million.

As if hundreds of millions of dollars wasn't enough, the creative political minds in Washington, D.C. have come up with another scheme to help themselves to the contents of your wallet and/or purse.

Let's look at the incumbent first.  The Obama campaign is after the cash that you might haul in on those special life occasions like birthdays.  Here is a screen grab from the barakobama.com website:

If you are getting married, having a birthday, anniversary, wedding, bar or bat mitzvah or any other special occasion, you can register with Obama 2012 and ask for a donation rather than getting a gift. What a bonus!

Here's a quote:

"Instead of another gift card you’ll forget to use, ask your friends and family for something that will go a little further: a donation to Obama for America. Register your next celebration—whether it’s a birthday, bar or bat mitzvah, wedding, or anniversary—with the Obama campaign. It’s a great way to show your support for a cause that’s important to you on your big day."

In the interest of balance, here's a screen capture from the Romney campaign official website:

I hope that you noticed two things:

1.) The use of the word "ride" as in "upgrade your ride".  I'm certain that particular use of the word "ride" has never passed through Mr. Romney's lips.  In his case, I'm certain that the word "ride" is most closely affiliated with the words "chauffeur" or "limousine".  That said, it is always nice to see that a guy has a real grasp of society's colloquial use of the English language.  

2.) Notice that shipping on all items is free for a limited time only.  Better get it now while you don't have to pay for shipping!  After all, $321 million just doesn't go as far as it used to.

Yup, that's what both sides of the political equation are stooping to now.  Taking Granny's birthday money and charging you for shipping their bumper stickers.  On the other hand, I guess they suspect that we'd just waste our money on something that would be far less satisfying over the long term.