The Money In The 2012 Election

Below is a list of donors to Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential campaign. The list is from Open Secrets which tracks all donations made to candidates.

The article at Open Secrets reminds us:

This table lists the top donors to this candidate in the 2012 election cycle. The organizations themselves did not donate , rather the money came from the organizations’ PACs, their individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals’ immediate families. Organization totals include subsidiaries and affiliates.

Here is the list:

2012DonorsThis is Mitt Romney’s list of donors:

2012MittRomneyI don’t really love either list, but I would rather see a candidate get money from the private sector than government employees. Another aspect of these lists is that they probably reflect the experience of the candidates and the friends gained along the way–Mitt Romney is a businessman who moves in business circles; Barack Obama worked in government and at the University of Chicago and moved in political and academic circles. Growth in the private sector is good for the economy–growth in government takes money out of the private sector and out of the private economy. At any rate, these two lists illustrate a very basic difference between the two parties.