How do I find out where a political candidate gets there money from?

Question

I know that much of a political candidates campaign money comes from donations, mostly from major corporations. However, this always seems to be a major hush hush aspect that the candidates never seem to talk about. I was wondering if their was a web page (or something) that I can go to that would list all of the major financial contributors to each of the candidates?

Answer 1

FEC would be one site. Another would be smartvote.

Depending on what you mean by coming from major corporations, you will likely find that your assumptions are wrong.

Under election law, corporations are not allowed to donate money to federal candidates. In addition, individuals are limited to $2,000.00. I believe PACs are still limited to $5,000.00.

What you are likely to find, but it will take a substantial amount of time with candidates getting over $1 million in a reporting period, is that many of the donors work in the same industry or for the same employer (e.g. instead of Ford Corporation donating to a candidate, you might find that each of the members of the Board of Directors and the officers donated to that candidate).

I am not so sure that its hush-hush as much as compliance is a different level of the campaign organization that most candidates ignore. The candidate may have contact with 100 people who then go out and raise the money (so called bundlers). The candidate knows who the bundlers are but does not necessarily know who the bundler got to contribute. In a typical period, you have over 1,000 big contributers (anything over $500) and a lot of small contributors (anything under $100). Its just not possible for the candidate to keep track of that level of detail.

My own recommendation as the one most likely to have the data organized in a useful form is smartvote. The FEC just reports the raw data without much organization.

Answer 2

Look up the Federal Election Commission.


FEC.


You'll also begin to understand why Ron Paul has such a HUGE base of support from the "People". And the other candidates will try and give their contributions from obscure sources back to them in light of being exposed. I hate say however its a little too late for that.

And why the dems nor any of the other reps don't stand a chance in 2008.


Ron Paul 2008.

Answer 3

FEC