One Billion Presidential Bid

February 4, 2008

And you thought it was expanseive to run for political office? Was! It’s now outrageous. The US presidential candidates are heading towards the $1,000,000,000.00 mark in campaign fundraising, shattering records as Wall Street and corporate America pump cash into the race for president. And if Michael Bloomberg has yet to enter the fray. If he decides to make a thrid-party race, the one billion will be the entry level!.

There’s a lot at stake in this years election cycle!

Corporations and wealthy individuals know it. And there’s a lot more money to throw around these days, or at least there was as of last year. A deep recession might put some hurt on the big givers but I doubt it will give them too much pause. The Barack Obama landslide in South Carolina proves that new people are coming out- getting involved.

And, the highly competitive field has forced corporate interests to generously spread their contributions to ensure continued good standing with potential future presidents. You need to have made a contribution to a winner and sicne who that was to be isn’t now who it looks might win. Hillary is on the run and Rudy has dropped out.

“This election can’t be compared to any other because it started so early with so much money right out of the box,” said Massie Ritsch, communications director at the Center for Responsive Politics, which analyses campaign finance data. “This was fuelled by the fact that this is the first open seat in 80 years and you had no single candidate who had the obvious advantage from day one.”

After months of campaigning, the field has now been narrowed to four serious candidates and new money now will come in for these four, well maybe three, and definitely two (both Democrats). Then we can move on to the general election and maybe a third-party bid or two.

Barack Obama, the Democratic senator from Illinois, said he raised $32,000,000.00 in January alone. Hillary Clinton, the New York senator and Mr Obama’s chief rival, said she raised $27m in the last three months of the year. And she will pick up the pace now for sure. Candidates had to file their full-year fundraising reports with the Federal Election Commission by Thursday.

Campaign finance groups will spend the weekend compiling industry-by-industry contribution totals. The figures are likely to show that the candidates raised well in excess of $500,000,000 for the year after netting a combined $420,000,000 through September. Soon we’ll know for sure.

In contrast to previous years, Democrats are solidly outraising Republicans, reflecting stronger enthusiasm for their candidates and some fatigue on the GOP side following eight years in control of the White House. John McCain, the Arizona senator and Republican frontrunner, raised $32m in the first nine months of last year, compared with $91m for Mrs Clinton and $80m for Mr Obama. Guess which party is in trouble!

Hang on to your wallets!

Written by Ernie · Filed Under Daily Commentary