Fun facts to know & tell from a Sunday’s New York Times piece about the blurring of the line between presidential candidates and Super PACs that can compile unlimited amounts of cash to promote them:
Early fund-raising suggests that the new groups are relying on a handful of wealthy donors capable of writing five-, six- and even seven-figure checks. According to a study published last week by the Center for Responsive Politics, more than 80 percent of money raised by Republican-leaning Super PACs this year came from just 35 donors.
Democratic-leaning Super PACs relied on an even smaller group, with more than 80 percent of contributions coming from just 23 donors.
Translation: Roughly five-dozen people are driving the political discourse in America right now.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t include any of us.
This is a great find. And scary. I hope this story gets much more play.
Thanks. Not sure it’s going to get around much.
The means for moving the money from the donor to the political arena is new, but is the substance any different?
Don’t think so.
What’s different now is the quantity one individual can donate. You used to have to bundle to put that much dough together. Now it’s from a single source. One voice murmuring in your ear is a lot more powerful than 20.
I looked for a list of the 58 names and couldn’t find it.
Here’s what seems to be the source for the Times piece:
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2011/08/world-of-super-pacs.html
I guess if you poked around opensecrets long enough you could come up with the names.