[Bruce_the_vii]

US Campaign donations

Here’s some data on American presidential campaign donations. I was a little taken a back by the data. First of all Obama’s total is almost twice the entire Republican field. Moreover Obama is at the sixth month point but he has twice the donations in number of respondents than at that point last time. Very interestingly half the donations are $200 or less and the cap on donations is legally $2,500. Rich people can’t buy legislators votes through donations although larger segments of the working world assume that is how things work. Interestingly while there are caps on donations in Canada these Canadians are reluctant to donate to political parties and they are chronically underfunded, especially the Liberals. A complaint in the USA is the sheer effort the Congressmen have to go to raise the money, it takes up valuable time. The solution is just to subsidize it. http://www.economist.com/node/21533419

[DanSC]

The problem is, very very few ads come from campaigns themselves. George W. Bush didn't approve the Swiftboat Veterans for Truth, but the ads definitely helped his campaign.

[Psudo]

Most Republican donors don't want to risk contributing to someone who doesn't get the nomination. They're waiting.

As for last election at this time, there was no incumbent running in 2008. It seems pretty plausible, all else being equal, for an established incumbent to get more and earlier donations than the riskier investment that is a challenger.