Yesterday, Howard Dean suggested that he has locked up the Democratic nomination, and that the Democratic National Committee should tell the other candidates to back off. That got a lot of chuckles from all quarters.

I suppose you can't blame the guy for giving it a shot, but the fat lady isn't even in the theatre yet. Would Dean cheat us of our usual treat of watching Democrats whup up on each other? I suppose I shouldn't joke about our presidential campaigns, but they are a tragic joke.

Dean wants to raise $200 million to match what Bush expects to raise. Dean's pitch is 2 million Americans x $100 = George W. Bush out of office... not to elect Dean, but to get Bush out of office... the same old, tired politicial trick, getting people to vote against someone else.

Through September, Dean had raised more than $25 million, John Kerry $20 million, Edwards $14.5 million, Gephardt $13.7 million, and Lieberman $11.8 million. That's $85 million raised more than a year before the election, just to try to get the nomination... and we're not even into the primaries yet. President Bush has raised $85 million too.

Why is Dean leading? I'm sure the Dean camp would give a lot of different reasons, but the simple explanation is that he's a Washington outsider. As a sitting Governor, he can disclaim responsibility for anything you don't like about our national government. That's always a big advantage; 4 of our last 5 Presidents were elected from Governor positions... Carter, Reagan, Clinton, and George W.

Campaigns involve a lot of money. Here are the numbers from the 2000 Presidential campaigns:

Take careful notice of the Federal Funds column. That's taxpayer money. It isn't enough that Americans voluntarily contributed over $200 million to the candidate of their choice... they also took another $169 million in involuntary contributions. See that $0 in Federal Funds alongside Harry Browne's info? As the Libertarian candidate, Browne qualified for $750,000 in Federal matching funds... and refused it, as a matter of principle. Libertarians will take only VOLUNTARY contributions, not stolen money. Remember that the next time you hear another candidate claiming they're for smaller government.

Every candidate likes to give the impression that millions of ordinary Americans are funding their campaigns, but it just ain't so.

Only a tiny fraction of Americans actually give campaign contributions to political candidates, parties or PACs. The ones who give contributions large enough to be itemized (over $200) is even smaller. In fact, less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the U.S. population gave 83 percent of all itemized campaign contributions for the 2002 elections.  (more)

So... about 45% of campaign money comes out of our tax money, and very few of us contribute voluntarily... where DOES all the money come from?

Here, courtesy of opensecrets.org, are the total contributions for the 10 biggest givers  in American politics since 1989

American Fedn of State, County & Municipal Employees    $34,499,897 
National Assn of Realtors    $23,045,752 
National Education Assn    $22,779,066 
Assn of Trial Lawyers of America    $22,413,466 
Intl Brotherhood of Electrical Workers    $20,643,889 
Carpenters & Joiners Union    $20,245,987 
Teamsters Union    $20,221,915 
Philip Morris    $20,171,465 
Laborers Union    $19,929,989 
American Medical Assn    $19,914,597 

Don't you just love that top one? Not only are we paying the salaries of those people, but we're paying for them to give more to campaigns than anyone else. That's also true of the NEA in 3rd place... while we hear that there's never enough money for education or teachers, their union can give huge amounts of money away.
 
Only 3 of the top 20 contributors give more to the GOP; all the rest are solidly Democratic. Check the list of the top 100 yourself. You'll find a lot of interesting tidbits there. As you look through the list, ask yourself this question...

What do these organizations have to gain by contributing to political campaigns?