Over Half A Million People Donated To Obama In This Year Alone
Don't look now, but the Obama campaign quietly passed the half-million mark in the number of people who have contributed to his campaign this year. That's more than half-a-million people donating in the past six weeks alone.
The total number of contributors since Jaunary 1st, as of now: 507, 148.
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Is it clear how they measure these supporters? That is, if I make a donation today, and another tomorrow, am I counted as one donation or two? If I make a donation today as "Gregory DeLassus" and another tomorrow as "Greg DeLassus" (same address, employer info, etc) am I counted as one donor or two?
February 20, 2008 12:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Greg,
The system's not fool-proof, but Obama's claiming jut over 500,000 unique contributors in 2008. In January, he had just under 300,000, with about two thirds of them first-time contributors. What his campaign is claiming is that in the next 20 days, an additional 200,000 people who hadn't donated so far this year (but who may have done so in 2007) anted up for the campaign.
But the real news is that Plouffe is saying he's doubled Hillary's haul on the month. She claims to have raised $15 million in 15 days - Obama now says $32 million in the month of February.
Jeepers.
February 20, 2008 12:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks. I was hoping that was the answer.
February 20, 2008 12:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Wow, 32 million already? Holy cow.
February 20, 2008 12:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oops. That $32 million figure, of course, was from last month.
But it's gotta be about right. What Plouffe is saying is that Obama now has as many first-time donors this month as he accumulated last month. Let's make two assumptions: that they comprise the same portion of his overall donor base, and that they're making the same average contribution. In other words, that there are again about 300,000 different donors, and that they're donating an average of $120. That'd easily yield another $30+ million month, and we're only two-thirds of the way through it. Even if these 200k are the only donors Obama's gotten this month, they should be enough to top $25 million.
And it's not improbable that the average contribution has actually gone up this month. His January wave was fueled by a massive number of true believers, digging into their own pockets. As his nomination becomes increasingly inevitable, he'll be tapping into the huge number of establishment donors who supported Hillary, but now want to hedge their bets.
February 20, 2008 12:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
And remember, the revised that $32MM haul upwards last night. They took in $36MM in January (I think the final number of donors was 253,000+ in January). So in less than a month they've had 250M+ unique donors (who, as you note, could have (and probably did) donate in 2007).
February 20, 2008 12:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, an e-mail I received last night says: "We're nearing our goal of 500,000 people giving so far in 2008. You've already donated to this campaign..." so at least I know I'm being counted once.
February 20, 2008 12:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's true, I'm one of them. The Prius is great. All the money from my trust fund that used to go to gas, is going straight to the Obama campaign.
Now if you'll excuse me, my latte is cooling.
February 20, 2008 12:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm a little upset. I've donated seven times in the past six months, and I STILL haven't seen any sign of my Prius. What's the holdup?
They can keep the latte (er, that's coffee, right?), but I could use a new car.
February 20, 2008 5:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama made a smart move. He decided early to target the latte-drinking, Prius-driving, Birkenstock-wearing, trust fund babies of America, and they are rewarding him handsomely. Additionally, as a Janus-like god possessing two faces, his donors doubled their donations, one to match each face.
February 20, 2008 12:33 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, he should have just stuck to the usual plan of taking money from lobbyists and PACs.
February 20, 2008 12:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
well, the lobbyist and pac money slush fund sure helped him win iowa.
February 20, 2008 1:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, it's clearly the trust-fund kids who are giving $50 at a time as opposed to the maxed-out donors of certain other campaigns.
February 20, 2008 12:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Me too, I thought it was chardonay sipping, NPR listening lefties. I'm in the wrong demographic to contribute to him I guess.
February 20, 2008 12:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
If you've made a single donation this month, then you are part of the 500M total. Any subsequent donations are not included in that number. At least, that's my understanding.
February 20, 2008 12:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
I just spit Folgers all over my boots, laughing so hard. I take public transit, but it was on a hybrid bus today. I don't have a trust fund, but I did convince my Republican working-class parents to donate to Obama. They don't know what latte, birkenstocks, or a Prius is though, so I guess I'll have to sit them down for a talk.
February 20, 2008 12:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
It has become very apparent that Hillary Clinton is running as the "Hands On, Ready From Day One" nitpicker!
Hillary turns her back on those who vote for her in the states that she loses. She never thanks them for having come out for her.
Does she not realize that were she to capture the nomination she would need those same people to vote for her again.
Her intentional snubbing of the voters in the places that she got defeated is clear evidence that she is just a self absorbed person, who has no time for even those who have supported her in states where she has lost. That is why the Clintons were willing to throw the African American community to the wolves, for the sake of expediency.
Hillary has a pattern of behaving like that. Look how she turned her back on her friend, Loni Guinier. Hillary was the person who pushed for Loni to be nominated, but after Ms. Guinier's name had to be withdrawn, Hillery never spoke to her again.
Bill and Hillery just use people, and as soon as they no longer need them, they cast them aside.
The voters who voted for Hillary over the last 10 contests should remember that she did not feel that you were worth thanking for your support.
February 20, 2008 12:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Liam said:
The voters who voted for Hillary over the last 10 contests should remember that she did not feel that you were worth thanking for your support.
Excellent, excellent, excellent point. Talk about tone deaf. Very good point.
February 20, 2008 12:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
This was crazy. It was at 400K a few days after the Potomac. Yesterday it was at 460K early evening. This morning it was 500K!
These are Unique donors as far as they can tell. Campaign finance laws require name, address, email & phone # etc so they must check their database.
I donated for a 2nd time without going through any special process and I got an email thanking me for making an additional donation. So they recognized that I wasn't a new donor.
Speaking of - $10 bucks says there is no way he takes public financing for the GE. The more donors they have, the more like an ATM this becomes. Some people have given all they have but I think more people have given what they felt comfortable with in one shot. It is a lot easier to cough up 4 donations of $25 spread over 4 months than to cough up $100 in one sitting.
They can just keep tapping this.
I for one have no problem with this. I would give a months salary and then some if I thought it would put a Dem in the White House.
February 20, 2008 12:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Based on the proposal to McCain's campaign outlined in the USA Today, I am not sure that you are right about him not taking public funds. I think that he might well do it. Now that McCain has made an issue of Obama's hesitancy, McCain can scarcely back out, so when Obama inserts a clause insisting on some absurdly low maximum donation ($200 I believe was the specific proposal) McCain is going to be stuck with the choice of looking like flip-flopper himself or else shooting himself in the foot by agreeing to fight Obama on very unfriendly terrain. In other words, Obama might well come out very well positioned by agreeing to accept public funds, especially because his fundraising prowess can still be funnelled towards the DNC (I know that I would shift my giving in that direction if he called on us to do so).
February 20, 2008 12:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Good point, at the very least this gives him a lot of leverage. If I were McCain, I would be afraid, very afraid of the Obama ATM.
I guess I just don't see Obama giving up this advantage but if he can funnel it through the DNC, so much the better.
February 20, 2008 1:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Janus-like? Oh, man, they've really hit on a good line of attack now. Nothing pisses off the good people of Ohio like Janus. We know the two-faced douchebag totally stole Vesta's thunder.
February 20, 2008 12:57 PM | Reply | Permalink
I was thinking the same thing myself. The guy is trying to rally working stiffs to a sort of class-warfare against Obama by means of an allusion to ancient Roman mythology?!? One is reminded of the story of the little republican child in Sunday school who, assigned to write a story about a poor family, wrote "once there was a family who was very poor. the mother was poor. the father was poor. the maid was poor. the gardener was poor..."
February 20, 2008 2:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
i'm actually warming up to the idea of a president mccain. barack hussein (as rush and the echo machine will be constantly calling him) will lose to mccain by more electoral votes than the gore and kerry deficits combined. with mccain's brave and sober handling of immigration, barack hussein will lose california, with the latino vote playing a decisive role. we got a glimpse of this in the NV primary, later underscored by AZ and CA, where in spite of polls and high-power celebs and union chief backing, latinos spurned barack hussein. that also puts NM, TX, AZ and FL out of reach. leaders of both communities have their heads in the sand pretending to make nice, when we have prison riots more often than elections in this country and the antagonists are the same over and over. one guess: whites? native americans? asians? think again. he won't be bragging about winning primaries in KS, NE, SC, GA, MN, ID and AL in the general. ya think? what dooms barack hussein is that the only one who can carry CA for him is HRC on the ticket. i hope and think she won't accept a veep spot. why should she, after barack hussein's unforced error of running against the clinton presidency? he made his own bed by lambasting the president who could have won a 3rd term, so now barack hussein must lie on it. luckily for america, we might yet avoid that angry grimace of michele obama being america's face to the world.
February 20, 2008 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
An interesting peak into the psyche of a true-believer, this.
February 20, 2008 2:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes, the losing party in a Democratic primary/caucus is guaranteed not to get that portion of the Democratic vote that went to his or her opponent because, um, you say so.
Another graduate of the Mark Penn School of Logic.
February 20, 2008 3:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
"barack hussein"? We get it. It doesn't work. It just reveals you as a partisan hack. You should stop using it if you want to anybody to even remotely take you seriously.
February 20, 2008 5:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama is BLACK? Why didn't anyone TELL ME?
February 20, 2008 2:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
greg delassus:
did you mean "peek"? here's another interesting "peak" for you.
it's a sad testament to the depths that political conduct has sunk in this country that an undervetted talkmeister offering plagiarized rhyme upgrades over jesse and al gets tagged as "transformational" and "transcendent" and those who subject him to cursory scrutiny are engaging in coded racism.
February 20, 2008 2:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
And . . . . how do you really feel? Don't let go, let it all out. It's therapudic.
February 20, 2008 3:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
THERAPEUTIC. ahh, that felt good.
February 20, 2008 3:09 PM | Reply | Permalink
Indeed, I suppose that I did mean "peek." Good catch, that.
February 20, 2008 3:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now here's some news. I just got an obama spam mail and they have reached 900,000 donors to the campaign and are shooting for 1 million by March 4. ONE MILLION DONORS!!! Holy cow. That is truly amazing. Alot of chardonay sippers out there.
February 20, 2008 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
He's almost at 1,000,000 individual contributors since he began his campaign.
What scares me about Obama taking public financing is the danger of being taken out by Republican 527s. He'd have to outsource his messaging to Democratic 527s to stay competitive, but he'd look like a hypocrite since he's criticized those groups in the past. I don't think he's in a great position about this campaign finance stuff, unless he can get McCain to refuse to take public financing.
February 20, 2008 3:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Got the same email Margerie and there's another $25 on it's way from me. Got one from Hillary complaining about he outspent her in WI 4 to 1 on TV ads. I'd say it's a shame she spent so much on fools like Penn and Wolfson or she'd have more for advertising but having seen her ads I know that'd be a waste too.
February 20, 2008 3:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ditto on the email. Considering they gained 40,000 NEW donors within 24 hours the Million mark doesn't seem that far out of reach.
I may donate again but I would have to give up my lattes and forego the new birkenstocks -- will just have to settle for Keds instead.
Just for the record, I think Hillary whining about spending is a bunch of bulls**t. Anyone who raised more than $100 million $ has no excuse for not having money.
February 20, 2008 4:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
May I suggest one point that seems to be escaping many today -- Since this time yesterday afternoon the campaign is saying that 50,000 people have given in 24 hours.
More than 2,000 donations per hour!
February 20, 2008 4:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Looks like a lot of fools wasted alot of money.
February 20, 2008 5:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thats the metric of politcal viability that cannot be spun. How can you spin away the crowds?
February 20, 2008 9:35 PM | Reply | Permalink