Ron Paul Fundraising Fueled by Small Donations
One of many media myths surrounding Ron Paul's amazing presidential run is that he has a small number of very generous donors. This myth sprouted up in order to explain his phenomenal fundraising success, after the media had spent months telling Americans that Ron Paul was the longest of long shots and a libertarian fringe candidate with negligible support. How else to explain where all the money was suddenly coming from?
The fundraising data filed by all candidates with the Federal Elections Commission tell a completely different story. It would be more accurate to say that Ron Paul has a very large number of donors who aren't particularly generous at all. In fact, Ron Paul raised more in small donations (defined as those of $200 and less) than any other Republican candidate. He even raised more in small donations than every Democratic candidate except Barack Obama. Among the leading candidates of both parties, Ron Paul raised the highest percentage of his funds from small donations.
2007 Small Contributions (Percent of total funds donated)
You probably won't see these numbers featured prominently in the mainstream media, if they appear at all -- they would expose the media's bias, and over-reliance on random telephone surveys of respondents who are largely uninformed and mostly undecided about the candidates at the time they are polled.
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The fundraising data filed by all candidates with the Federal Elections Commission tell a completely different story. It would be more accurate to say that Ron Paul has a very large number of donors who aren't particularly generous at all. In fact, Ron Paul raised more in small donations (defined as those of $200 and less) than any other Republican candidate. He even raised more in small donations than every Democratic candidate except Barack Obama. Among the leading candidates of both parties, Ron Paul raised the highest percentage of his funds from small donations.
2007 Small Contributions (Percent of total funds donated)
$32.6M (32%) -- Barack Obama
$17.3M (62%) -- Ron Paul
$14.1M (14%) -- Hillary Clinton
$11.6M (33%) -- John Edwards
$9.5M (44%) -- Fred Thompson
$9.2M (25%) -- John McCain
$8.0M (15%) -- Mitt Romney
$5.1M (23%) -- Bill Richardson
$5.0M (9%) -- Rudy Giuliani
$3.2M (36%) -- Mike Huckabee
You probably won't see these numbers featured prominently in the mainstream media, if they appear at all -- they would expose the media's bias, and over-reliance on random telephone surveys of respondents who are largely uninformed and mostly undecided about the candidates at the time they are polled.
