Monday, October 20, 2008

Curious about Presidential campaign contributions, I checked out a site that reveals what all the candidates have received and spent to date.
There are, of course, 6 candidates..

Constitution Party: Chuck Baldwin
After running as the Constitution Party's vice presidential nominee in 2004, Baldwin has been promoted in 2008 to the top of the ticket. A Baptist pastor, he leads his party in advocating a conservative platform based on a strict reading of the Constitution. Baldwin, a former Republican, has criticized President Bush and the GOP as too liberal. He defeated Alan Keyes for the Constitution Party's '08 nomination – Keyes had also tried for the Republican nomination – and Baldwin has received the endorsement of Ron Paul, another former Republican presidential candidate.
To date, his campaign has raised $96,000 and spent $87,000.

Libertarian: Bob Barr
Former Rep. Bob Barr, once a Republican, announced that he's running for president on the Libertarian ticket, blasting the two major parties for not implementing more fiscal restraint. Barr, who helped successfully push through Bill Clinton's impeachment and who lost his Georgia House seat to redistricting in 2002, has maintained his leadership political action committee since then. He has raised $4.5 million through his PAC since the 2004 election cycle yet has given only 2 percent of that to other politicians -- a sign he was thinking about running for president.
His campaign has raised $855,000 and spent $796,000

Green Party: Cynthia McKinney
An ex-Democrat, McKinney was first elected to the House of Representatives from Georgia in 1992 but was ousted in 2002, and then forced out again in 2006 after having been re-elected in 2004. Consumer activist Ralph Nader, who's running as an independent in 2008, was the Green Party's nominee in 2000, when he raised $13.5 million. With little name recognition, McKinney will have a hard time topping Nader's 2000 fundraising, but she did manage to raise nearly $1 million to unsuccessfully defend her House seat in 2002. However, that was before she made news for physically confronting a police officer in 2006 for failing to recognize her when she entered the Capitol.
Her campaign has raised $0

Independent Party: Ralph Nader
In his third bid for president, Nader is facing some record-breaking fundraisers. In 2000, Nader raised $8.4 million as the Green Party's candidate. In 2004, the consumer advocate collected $4.6 million, with nearly $800,000 from public financing, and won a mere 0.3 percent of the vote as an independent. In both campaigns Nader relied mostly on small donations; his larger contributors tended to be retired individuals, educators, lawyers or in the entertainment industry.
His campaign has raised $3 million and has spent $3 million.

Republican Party: John McCain
McCain's campaign did a 180-degree turn this election cycle, going from nearly broke after last fall to emerging as the Republican nominee. Unlike his opponent, the Arizona senator has opted into the public financing system, limiting what he can spend to $84 million. He can, however, collect contributions to pay for the legal and accounting expenses necessary to comply with the public financing system and his party can spend its money on his behalf.
His campaign has raised $240 million and spent $204 million

Democrat Party: Barack Obama
2008 boosted Obama into the position of the most successful presidential fundraiser ever, in addition to the Democratic nominee. From the start he's had no problem bringing in the money or appealing to new donors, and has relied on small online donors and bigger donors nearly equally. After becoming the nominee, he opted out of the public financing system, making him the first major-party candidate since the system was created to decline taxpayers' money for the general election.
His campaign has raised $454 million and spent $377 million

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