Party of the 'Little Guy' (and big donors)

The top 100 political donors of the 2008 election cycle are listed in OpenSecrets.org . First, note how few of these big donors lean Republican: only 12 of the top 100. And the higher up the list (the bigger the donor), the fewer lean Republican. In fact, none of the top 15 donors leans Republican. Only four of the top 50 do.

And here is another interesting tidbit. While Bear Stearns needed a government bailout to avoid bankruptcy, it still managed to be the 39th biggest political donor in the 2008 election, contributing $911,406, with 59% of that going to Democrats. Not to worry, it was bought out by JP Morgan, which is the fourth biggest donor in 2008, contributing $2,026,781, of which 67% went to Democrats.

If we go by industry sectors, none of the top 10 lean Republican, and only three of the top 20 do. As I noted earlier, lawyers are the biggest donor group and they lean heavily Democrat. However, securities and investment firms are the third biggest donor group, donating $71,539,164 so far in 2008, of which 60% went to Democrats.

You might want to remember this the next time your Democratic friends tell you how Republicans are so influenced by "the rich", how the Republican Party is the party of Wall Street and the Democratic Party is the party of the little guy, or how the current financial crisis is due to Republican capitalists.