3 candidates fund raising - Which one conceals individual donor amounts ?

[Hoppin_Mad]

CLARK


DEAN


KERRY

Not surprising is it ? The Washington Insider who has taken more special interest money than any other Senator in the last 15 years doesn't want you to know the size of the average donation to his campaign. *

Well, if I got almost 75% of my donations in amounts of $1000 and up, I'd want to conceal it from the public, too !

(Edwards has no such graphic, or I would have included it as well )

Kerry Donations by Amount $2000 45% (included in $1000), $1000 73%, $200-$999 14%, $200 13%

http://www.cfinst.org/pr/020204.html (table 2)

* ( USA today - In the past 15 years, lobbyists have given Kerry nearly $640,000, the most of any senator. Many represent telecommunications and financial companies with business before his Senate committees. His top campaign donors include corporate lawyers and the financial industry. )


http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2004-02-03-edit-usat_x.htm

[Northwind]

1. Can't say I am even mildly surprised

But at least he gets good rates for his vote, right?

Kerry is corruption personafied.

[AP]

3. To be fair, the problem isn't that Kerry sells his vote. It's that the...

...fact of his experience and success brings with it certain problems which will make it hard for him to contrast with Bush.

This is part of the reason that long-term senators have a problem getting elected, and why governors don't.

This is why someone like Carter was able to get elected.

If now is a moment when we want to break from the past -- with the shift in power from the working class to the wealthy -- you have to ask yourself if Kerry is a sufficiently powerful symbol of breaking with the past.

If you don't think the last 30 years have been that bad, then maybe we don't need to break with the past. If you think the trend in the federal government over that time IS a big problem, and explains why we have the world we have now (the corporatocracy/oligopoly), you might wonder if we have someone who's more of the kind of symbol that Carter was.

[Renew Deal]

2. Aren't the donors reported to the FEC?

[w13rd0]

4. A picture is worth a thousand words...

...and you've posted three.

[arewethereyet]

10. some folks can raise money without cheesy graphics

and it seems all our people get paid AND we can advertise too

[MrPeepers]

5. Really...

This is getting ridiculous. Because Kerry doesn't put the number of donors on a counter on his web page, he's part of an insider conspiracy? First, Kerry isn't in charge of designing his web page. Some peon in front of a computer spat out a graphic, there it is, the Senator wasn't huddled behind a screen secretly cooking up his clever plot to keep us all from seeing the truth. Second,this mess about the special interests is absurd. He took donations from individuals who worked for lobbying organizations. I'm sure the Senator is prepared to tailor his opinions to a bunch of individuals from a multitude of different organizations for 40 grand a year. That makes lots of sense. No, this is unsubstantiated, baseless attack.

Peepers

[Exgeneral]

9. I think the point is

he should have nothing to hide

Yet he seems to be.

All the frikkin time.

Maybe he just doesn't honestly KNOW how toplay it straight.
But he has plenty of apologists around, that's obvious

[blm]

14. Know. His donor lists are open.

This is a trumped issue.

[Hoppin_Mad]

17. The info should be right on the site - it's another of Kerry's Kons !

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Hoppin_Mad]

8. LOL ! Edwards gets an even higher % of $1000+ donations than Kerry !

[9119495]

19. Edwards better start. The money will be key. Are you saying when

he is the nominee that he will not ask for money as a matter of principle? Congrats on four more GWB.

Be sensible man. We need more people giving so more people can give less! Then the big guys won't matter nearly as much.

[DFLforever]

7. Kerry's train looks like it's up for appearance sake.

As his help stamps endorsements on the back of generous checks collected in the usual way for the usual reasons.

[MAlibdem]

18. To be fair, it's a bus

[tishaLA]

11. Wow! You Dean people are doing GREAT!

Congratulations!

[Hoppin_Mad]

24. The Clark train just took a big jump too - Congrats ! -nt-

[blm]

12. You have a FALSE STATEMENT in your post. Public Citizen has correct info.

You don't want to be accused of spreading an untruth do you?

Feb. 3, 2004

Kerry Ranks Near Bottom in Senate on Money From PACs and Lobbyists

Statement from Nick Nyhart, Executive Director of Public Campaign Action Fund; Chellie Pingree, President of Common Cause; and Joan Claybrook, President of Public Citizen

According to a Jan. 31 Washington Post story, presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is beholden to the very special interests he says he will dismiss from the White House if elected. The Post based its erroneous conclusion on an analysis of the money Kerry has raised from lobbyists while he was a senator.

But the Post paints an inaccurate picture using an arbitrary statistic. A more accurate indicator of whether a candidate has ties to special interests is whether that candidate receives political action committee (PAC) as well as lobbyist money, and if so, how much. An analysis of PAC and lobbying contributions combined shows Kerry is near the bottom in receiving such funds when PAC money is averaged from 1993 through the present and lobbyist money is averaged from 1990 through present. Further, the lobbyist money that Kerry has taken in the presidential campaign is less than 1 percent of his total money raised.

Not only has Kerry historically refused to take PAC money, but his record shows that he been a leader for more than a decade in full reform of campaign financing, advocating for clean public money not only for presidential but also congressional campaigns.

Kerry was the lead sponsor with the late Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minn.) on a measure that would have authorized clean money in all federal congressional elections and was a leader in pressing for congressional public financing in the 1992 and 1993 campaign finance reform bills. Although those bills passed, they were not enacted.

Other Democratic presidential candidates such as former Gov. Howard Dean and Sen. John Edwards also have endorsed campaign finance reform. Dean has endorsed public financing and reform of the presidential public funding system. Edwards played a leadership role in the effort to pass the McCain-Feingold bill and has endorsed reform of the presidential public funding system. President Bush has not endorsed either.

http://www.publiccitizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=1639

[Lobo_13]

15. Yeah, Yeah, Yeah

The stock answer is "Dean did it, too." Even when it's not true.

Kerry is up to his eyeballs in dirty money. You are aware of the existence of other types of special interests besides PAC's, right? Or is it okay for your guy to bundle large amounts from lobbyists, just like his college chum, George W.

For reiteration, PAC's are not the only special interests in Washington. Kerry has taken boatloads of money from other special interests AND did their bidding like a good little whore.

[Lobo_13]

13. One more example

of the fluff candidate, John Kerry.

Nine days to hit 1.5 mil, even with the big check writers. And Dean is halfway there in 1 day of small donations.

[bitchkitty]

16. Hmmm...who could it be?

Could it be....SATAN? Or Bush's fraternity brother?

[LiberalFighter]

20. Where does Bush get his money??

[ozone_man]

21. Kerry and Edwards lead in over $2,000 contributors.

http://www.opensecrets.org/presidential/donordems.asp?format=&sortby=P

[spooky3]

22. Why judge donors by the size of their donations (up to $2000)?

I am GLAD that people are giving what they can and want to give, regardless of the amount. I see nothing wrong with people who can give $2000 to do that, and nothing wrong with people who would love to help but can't. Maybe they are older people rather than younger, who have more discretionary income. Better that they are giving to our guys than to the Republicans!

[maxr4clark]

25. With all due respect,

I know what my financial situation is, and whether I can afford $2000 donations. The information about how big the donations are is relevant to me; it is one of the more meaningful statistics being reported about the candidates.

John Edwards in particular has made the claim that he is from humble roots, and is in this for the "common man". The common man is not giving $2000 per donor, so if Edwards is averaging $2000 per donor, most of his support is not coming from the common man. The most common suggestion I have heard is that a lot of trial lawyers are supporting him. I suspect trial lawyers would be glad to support someone with Edwards' voting record. In my opinion, garnering a significant quantity of your support from a group of self-employed citizens who benefit directly from your votes in the Senate should be considered getting support from a special interest group, of precisely the kind that Edwards (a) says he doesn't accept money from, and (b) says he wants to "cut off at the knees" in his stump speech.

When a candidate speaks in as practiced a way as Edwards does and yet deviates almost not at all from his speech when answering questions from an audience, I get suspicious, and start looking for more details about his voting record. The average size of his donations also has caused me some concern. Edwards has an okay voting record, in my opinion, with a few glaring exceptions: the Patriot Act and the Iraq War Resolution in particular. All in all, I see a man with good intentions, but less experience and a larger ego than I am interested in putting in the White House. I would vote for him over Bush in a second, though.

What makes the most sense to me for Kerry is that prominent party Democrats are supporting him monetarily, since he is the candidate with the longest history in the party, and therefore the most political "capital". I see nothing nefarious in that, it is just one of the assets Kerry's campaign has.

Dean and Clark have said that they are running grass-roots campaigns, and their average amount per donation is consistent with that claim. I also see nothing wrong in their kind of campaign, or in publishing a count of individual donations; it is another way to celebrate how active their campaign is. It also happens to let you determine an average donation per donor.

[Clark Can WIN]

23. How was I able to guess that............ before I opened this thread?

Pure talent I guess. Should be fortunetelling.

Thanks Hoppin!

[Hoppin_Mad]

27. You're welcome -nt-

[Clark Can WIN]

28. anda KICK !!!!!!!!!

[corporatewhore]

26. Kerry doesnt inspire that kind of dedication