Chart of donations of presidential candidates

[Snellius]

Found this chart on Atrios. Interesting breakdown. Not sure how to interpret it but it's surprising how much big money, at least in terms of size of donations, is behind Gephardt and Sharpton and how much Dean, Kucinich and Clark, to some extent, have to gain if they get the nomination.

[DannyRed]

1. I think

That you need to take a closer look...

Across the top is the number...net total in millions raised...Bush raised 82.4 million...Edwards 13.9, etc.

The bar graph shows the percentage of each candidate's money raised from a given kind of donation (>1000, 200-999, <200)...

What it shows is that Dean and Kucinich, and to a lesser degree Clark and Braun, have been raising their money primarily from small donations of less than 200 dollars per individual donor.

And that Bush, Lieberman, Edwards, Kerry, Sharpton, and Gephardt are raising their money primarily in the form of >1000 donations.

Now, combine the percentages with the totals raised and you will understand why Dean is raising so many eyebrows.

Another thing to note is that the total amount of money raised by the Democratic field is MORE than the total raised by Bush.

[Skinner]

2. That's a really great chart.

I think it is really sad how the Democratic Party has made so little effort to create a network of low-dollar donors. It's good to see that some of our candidates are figuring out how to raise large amounts of money in small denominations. That can only help us in the long run.

[Matilda]

3. It also shows that G.W. Bush has been bought and paid for.

[HFishbine]

4. Thanks!

This is very interesting. What is most obvious here is that Bush supporters are well on their way to maxing out the federal limit of $2,000. This jibes with info I found yesterday that shows the average contribution total per individual to Bush is over $1,500. To Dean, it's about $550.

Dean's current supporters (he has about 45,000 to Bush's 52,000) are still able to legally give three times more than current Bush supporters before maxing out.

Additionally, once the dem nominee is known he can count on an immediate pool of new donors from among those who previously supported other candidates. Bush will have no such bump.

If the nominee is Dean and he starts to nip at Bush's heels, you can rest assured that Bush will start slurping it up from the PACs (more than he already is). He's probably going to do everything he can not to be out-monied, but such tactics would only further serve to paint him as beholden to special intererst.

[expatriot]

5. Sharpton has gotten 80 NAACP millionaires to fork over $2,000 (nt)

[ablbodyed]

6. It's really heartening....

to see the implication that the numbers of individual givers to Dean 'et al' is so high. And with Dean's decision to forgo public financing (a sad, but necessary, state-of-affairs given duck-anus's huge donations), these people can give again. A real benefit to the Demos. Say what you will about Dean's policies, his manner, temper etc., he's done us a REAL favor with his internet innovations.

[Eric J in MN]

7. Bush to Kucinich contrast

The most right-wing candidate, Bush, has raised the biggest percentage in big donations, while Kucinich, the most left-wing candidate, has raised the biggest percentage in small donations.

[Pavlovs DiOgie]

8. Excellent chart!

What a great find.

Maybe now some will be able to understand more clearly why Dean is opting out, and how his campaign really is finance reform in the works.