Politics
Obama loses many donors from 2008 race
Obama’s missing contributors live across the country, mostly concentrated in the Northeast and the West Coast. Obama also missed support from early donors in parts of Texas, Illinois and Michigan, areas he narrowly won in 2008. But he also picked up some new sources of cash in those places.
Romney, a leading Republican contender, has closed in financially in areas of the country that gave a solid stream of checks to Obama in the 2008 campaign, including Southern California, Florida and New England.
Records show a handful of Obama contributors from 2008 donated to Romney this time; few, if any, appeared to give to Texas Gov. Rick Perry, another front-runner.
Many Obama supporters said they will vote for his re-election even if they don’t write big checks. About 4 out of 5 of those who voted for the president in 2008 say they are likely to do so again, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll.
But Obama’s contributions this recent fundraising quarter, absent support from the Democratic National Committee, are less than the combined cash given to all Republican candidates, hinting at an influx of money to whomever Republicans chose as their nominee. Observers have said this election likely will cost more than US$1 billion.
The Obama campaign, for its part, said more than a million people have given to the president’s 2012 re-election efforts, a mix of hundreds of thousands of new and returning donors that spokesman Ben LaBolt said points to “evidence of a growing organization.”
All told, Obama received donations from a wide swath of the United States from the Plains, the Midwest and parts of the South since April, the AP’s analysis found.
The campaign figures didn’t capture money raised by new, outside groups known as super political action committees, which can collect unlimited amounts of cash to influence elections. Obama and leading Republican candidates all have super PACs working in their favor.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
