Who’s Buying Obama?
By A.K. GuptaFrom the January 12, 2008 issue | Posted in National | Email this article
Barack Obama’s campaign has soared on his rhetoric of “change.” Many people have responded favorably, apparently tired of the disastrous Bush presidency and leery of restoring a divisive Clinton one. But how much change does Obama really represent? He says he won’t accept contributions from lobbyists or political action committees — even though he has. Obama raised more than $80 million through the first nine months of 2007, and it’s not coming from bake sales. According to reports, he’s maintained ties to lobbyists to shake the money tree, and, next to Hillary Clinton, is the top recipient of money from corporations that game federal legislation and policy for their interests. The following is a sample of which corporate sectors and industries are backing Obama, and how he stacks up against the other leading recipients.
—A.K. GUPTA
Agribusiness
Mitt Romney (1) $566,250
Barack Obama (5) $323,528
Commercial Banks
Hillary Clinton (1) $935,658
Barack Obama (2) $865,856
Computers/Internet
Barack Obama (1) $940,459
Hillary Clinton (2) $883,125
Energy/Natural Resources
Rudolph Giuliani (1) $819,508
Barack Obama (4) $489,909
Hedge Funds & Private Equity
Rudolph Giuliani (1) $1,157,900
Barack Obama (3) $976,574
Insurance
Christopher Dodd (1) $713,012
Barack Obama (5) $390,513
Lawyers/Law Firms
Hillary Clinton (1) $9,596,748
Barack Obama (3) $7,940,424
Pharmaceuticals/Health Products
Hillary Clinton (1) $269,436
Barack Obama(2) $261,784
Real Estate
Hillary Clinton (1) $3,939,008
Barack Obama (4) $2,292,188
Securities & Investment
Hillary Clinton (1) $4,735,730
Barack Obama (3) $4,505,199
Telephone Utilities
John McCain (1) $176,800
Barack Obama (3) $84,936
(All information is from opensecrets.org.)
February 1st, 2008 at 9:48 pm
While I appreciate the effort to look at money behind candidates, this article seems a little slanted towards cynacism. Open Secrets explains on their website that these figures come from individuals, not corporations themselves. If I give to Obama and list my farm as an employer, I would show up as an agribusiness donor. This article makes it sound like these contributions are inherently tied to kickbacks, and I suspect that is not the case, entirely…I hope!
No one should believe that a new President will solve the problems this country has, but let’s not be blinded by cynacism and miss a (little) opportunity for something decent while we’ve got it.