Who Funds Presidential Campaigns?

Twenty-six million for Clinton (thirty six million if you count the ten million she transferred from her U.S. Senate campaign fund) Twenty Five million for Obama, Twenty three million for Romney! Sixteen million for Rudy. We could go on down the list as far as the numbers of dollars raised by the presidential candidates, but I think you get the point. Did you ever wonder where they get all that money? Well, from American citizens of course as mandated by federal law, but who specifically is funding these non-stop campaigns. From what sectors of the economy is this moolah triculating from?

Trial lawyers? (Famous Houston attorney John O'Quinn is an Edwards supporter Check! CEOs? (The Waltons love Huckabee, Yup! Don't forget Hollywood ladies and gentlemen. They adore the junior senators from New York and Illinois. So the question is where in the world do I go to find out who is giving money to what. Of course you can go to the Federal Election Commission website and find out who's given what by using their donor search database at FEC.gov, but I personally find that place a little hard to navigate so I prefer a few other sources including:

Newsmeat.com (my favorite) it has a complete listing of all political donations of 200 dollars plus since 1980. It also has a feature of breaking it down to see who more well-known people have given to so if you want to see who legendary television producer Norman Lear has given his over one million dollars in political donations to over the years click on the celebrities section. Other categories that the site breaks down for you so people are easier to find include sports stars (Michael Jordan, Richard Petty) Actors (Mel Gibson, Alec Baldwin) Business executives (Pete Coors-Coors Beer, David Brandon-Domino's Pizza CEO) Billionaires (Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos-amazon.com founder) and then finally Media-(Lou Dobbs CNN Commentator, Rush Limbaugh-radio talk show host)

Just for fun let's take a list of some of the Presidential candidates and mention some of the famous or wealthy folks who have contributed money to their campaigns during the first quarter of fundraising.

Hillary Clinton