Barack Obama & John McCain 2008 Presidential Campaign Contributors
The 2008 presidential campaign has seen a record amount of advertising and campaign contributions. But who is contributing the most to the McCain and Obama campaigns? Here is a list of the top contributors to the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates.
| Barack Obama | John McCain | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of California | $909,283 | Merrill Lynch | $359,070 | |
| Goldman Sachs | $874,207 | Citigroup Inc | $296,151 | |
| Harvard University | $717,230 | Morgan Stanley | $262,777 | |
| Microsoft Corp | $714,108 | Goldman Sachs | $228,695 | |
| Google Inc | $701,099 | JPMorgan Chase & Co | $215,042 | |
| JPMorgan Chase & Co | $581,460 | US Government | $195,505 | |
| Citigroup Inc | $581,216 | AT&T Inc | $185,063 | |
| National Amusements Inc | $543,859 | Credit Suisse Group | $178,053 | |
| Time Warner | $508,148 | PricewaterhouseCoopers | $166,470 | |
| Sidley Austin LLP | $492,445 | Blank Rome LLP | $161,826 | |
| Stanford University | $481,199 | Wachovia Corp | $159,107 | |
| Skadden, Arps et al | $473,424 | US Army | $158,170 | |
| Wilmerhale Llp | $466,679 | UBS AG | $147,465 | |
| UBS AG | $454,795 | Bank of America | $143,026 | |
| Latham & Watkins | $426,924 | Greenberg Traurig LLP | $142,137 | |
| Columbia University | $426,516 | Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher | $141,446 | |
| Morgan Stanley | $425,102 | US Dept of Defense | $129,725 | |
| IBM Corp | $415,196 | FedEx Corp | $125,654 | |
| University of Chicago | $414,555 | Lehman Brothers | $115,707 | |
| US Government | $400,819 | Bear Stearns | $113,050 | |
I find it particularly interesting that Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Citigroup, and Morgan Stanley are all hedging their bets by contributing heavily to both candidates (of course, this is an incomplete list and their are several more mega-companies that have contributed to both parties). Why are they contributing to both sides? There is only one reason; to gain influence and advantage with whomever becomes the next President of the United States. Does that make you feel a little sick to your stomach? Well it gets worse, because this is only the tip of the iceberg. There are 100 more senators and 435 congressmen who may even be more dependant on the money they receive from special interest groups.
Do you know what groups your representatives accept money from?
