Campaign Finance Numbers
In 2008—the last presidential election year—candidates for office, political parties, and independent groups spent a total of $5.3 billion on federal elections. The amount spent on the presidential race alone was $2.4 billion, and over $1 billion of that was spent by the campaigns of the two major candidates: Barack Obama spent $730 million in his election campaign, and John McCain spent $333 million.
In the 2010 midterm election cycle, candidates for office, political parties, and independent groups spent a total of $3.6 billion on federal elections. The average winner of a seat in the House of Representatives spent $1.4 million on his or her campaign. The average winner of a Senate seat spent $9.8 million.
The money for campaigns for federal office comes from four broad categories of sources: (1) small individual contributors (individuals who contribute $200 or less), (2) large individual contributors (individuals who contribute more than $200), (3) political action committees, and (4) self-financing (the candidate's own money). In the 2010 Congressional races, the sources of campaign contributions broke down as follows:
| Small Individual Contributors | Large Individual Contributors | Political Action Committees | Self-Financing | Other | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| House Democrats | 9% | 47% | 38% | 3% | 3% |
| House Republicans | 14% | 48% | 24% | 12% | 3% |
| Senate Democrats | 12% | 53% | 15% | 12% | 8% |
| Senate Republicans | 18% | 42% | 12% | 20% | 8% |
Read more about this topic: Campaign Finance In The United States
Famous quotes containing the words campaign, finance and/or numbers:
“You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.”
—Mario Cuomo (b. 1932)
“A bank is a confidence trick. If you put up the right signs, the wizards of finance themselves will come in and ask you to take their money.”
—Christina Stead (1902–1983)
“I had but three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship; three for society. When visitors came in larger and unexpected numbers there was but the third chair for them all, but they generally economized the room by standing up.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)