Which is the Party of the Rich Fat Cats?

From the The Campaign Finance Institute, an analysis of 2008 presidential candidate spending, and some baseline data for interpreting the candidate reports what will list receipts through June 30.

The latest data only lists fundraising through March 31.

What might surprise people who still think the Republican Party is the party of rich fat cats is the fact that Democrats have raised a lot more money.

As of March 31, they had raised a bit over $95,000,000.

Republicans, in contrast, had raised a bit over $61,000,000.

This represents a massive explosion of fund raising compared to 2003, the year before the 2004 election. In 2003, counting receipts through June 30, Democrats had raised only a bit over $17,000,000.

Republican fund raising has exploded too, but since Bush was running essentially unopposed in that year, the comparison isn’t informative.

All this has happened since McCain-Feingold, passed in 2001, was supposed to take the evil influence of money out of electoral politics.