Who is Currying Favor with the Next POTUS?

I particularly like the data presented on the Open Secrets website.  Open Secrets contains a huge amount of data on elections, politicians, fundraising and lobbying, however, in this election season, I find their data on the Presidential race fundraising particularly intriguing, especially the data that shows which sectors of the economy are the source of these generous donations.  Here is a collection of interesting data from the Democratic and Republican sides and how different the sources of their funding are, noting that the data is current to the end of the September reporting to the Federal Election Commission.

Let's start with the incumbent president  Thus far, the Obama camp has raised $555,987,426 and spent $459,006,123.  As shown on this pie chart, 35 percent of contributions have come from small donors (those who have donated $200 or less) with the remaining 65 percent coming from large donors:

The top contributors to the Obama campaign in order of donation size include the following:

1.) University of California - $706,931

2.) Microsoft Corporation - $544,445

3.) Google Inc. - $526,009

4.) Harvard University - $433,860

5.) United States Government - $389,100

Here are the top five business sectors that have contributed to the Obama campaign (excluding "Other" which contributed a total of $56,862,332):

1.) Lawyers and Lobbyists - $18,942,369

2.) Miscellaneous Business - $15,030,123

3.) Communications and Electronics - $13,689,493

4.) Health - $11,562,524

5.) Ideological and Single Issue - $9,553,576

This information really gives us a sense of which sectors of the American economy have the financial horsepower to gain (also known as buying) favor with the next Administration.

Here are the top five industries that have donated to the Obama campaign:

1.) Retired - $34,779,084

2.) Lawyers and Law Firms - $18,635,657

3.) Education - $12,831,700

4.) Health Professionals - $6,628,612

5.) Business Services - $5,631,368

Now, on to Mr. Romney.  Thus far the Romney campaign has raised $340,226,148 and spent $77,091,170.  As shown on this pie chart, the Romney campaign receives a much smaller portion of its donations from small individual donors; in this case, only 17 percent of Mr. Romney's donations are $200 or less, half the level of the Obama campaign, as shown on this pie chart:

Here is a list of the top contributors to the Romney campaign:

1.) Goldman Sachs - $891,140

2.) Bank of America - $668,139

3.) JPMorgan Chase - $663,219

4.) Morgan Stanley - $649,847

5.) Credit Suisse Group - $554,066

It seems kind of obvious which sector of the economy really, really, really wants a Romney Administration, doesn't it?

Here are the top five business sectors that have contributed to the Romney campaign, again, excluding "Other" which has contributed $40,631,188:

1.) Finance, Insurance and Real Estate - $40,098,729

2.) Miscellaneous Business - $17,250,398

3.) Lawyers and Lobbyists - $10,088,310

4.) Health - $9,445,732

5.) Energy and Natural Resources - $6,385,880

Here are the top five industries that have donated to the Romney campaign:

1.) Retired - $36,264,814

2.) Securities and Investment - $16,090,519

3.) Real Estate - $9,409,465

4.) Lawyers and Law Firms - $8,944,083

5.) Miscellaneous Finance - $6,101,221

It is really interesting to see how each candidate has backers from completely different sectors of the economy and yet, they share one group in common; lawyers and lobbyists.  In the case of Mr. Romney, his support from the finance sector of the economy is significantly above either candidates support from any other sector.  This is not particularly surprising given his background, however, should another 2008-style crisis erupt, it will make it very difficult for a Republican president to say "no" to the Goldman Sachs of this world.

That said, I guess these folks are just buying access to the Oval Office while the opportunity to curry favor exists.   Unfortunately, that kind of leaves "mom'n'pop" out there in the cold.