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Wealthy California Liberals, Now More Powerful Than Ever

In what will inevitably be great fodder for the GOP primary winner, Forbes notes that:

In the first quarter, Californians contributed about $20 million to leading presidential candidates, with Democrats holding a 3-to-2 edge over Republicans, according to an analysis of fundraising data by The Associated Press.

So, California's 34 million residents will finally have a voice? Not so fast...

[M]ost of the money the candidates raised came from a small group of large donors. A study by the Campaign Finance Institute found that donations under $200 amounted to only 14 percent of the total raised.Contributions of $1,000 or more accounted for 79 percent of the total raised by the candidates, the institute said, compared with 68 percent in 1999.

"You have a bunch of presidential candidates and sitting senators and governors and congressmen who are dependent on very large donations from a tiny segment of the American public," said Steven Weissman, the institute's associate director for policy. "That should certainly raise concerns for those people who are worried about equal access to decision makers."

Er, yes.

Posted by Clara Jeffery on 04/16/07 at 6:02 PM | Comments (1) | Email | Print

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