Fundraising of Barack Obama
On Feb. 20, 2007, a fundraiser was hosted in Los Angeles for Obama by DreamWorks Studio heads Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen. Tickets were $2,300 per person, and the evening netted the campaign an estimated $1.3 million [source: AP].
Another Hollywood-based fundraiser, held in September 2007 by Oprah Winfrey also sold tickets for $2,300 per person (this is the maximum amount an individual can contribute to a campaign by law). This fundraiser raised around $3 million for the Obama presidential campaign [source: AFP].
While celebrity benefits certainly help the candidate's campaign finances, it appears most of Obama's coffers are filled through grassroots campaign contributions. A Cincinnati fundraiser, hosted by Ohio state senator Eric Kearney on Feb. 26, 2007, attracted 1,000 supporters and generated between $350,000 and $500,000. The host was quoted as saying he was impressed by "how diverse a crowd it was -- whites, blacks, Latinos, Asian folks, rich and poor" [source: Cincinnati Enquirer].
In October 2007 his campaign announced that it had attracted 93,000 new donors contributing $19 million in the third quarter of that year. The total fundraising for the campaign reached $74.9 million for the primaries alone, with contributions from 352,000 donors [source: Barack Obama.com]. By the end of the year, the total donations from October to Dec. 31 came to an additional $23.5 million. From Jan. 1 to Jan. 8, 2008, Obama's campaign raised $8 million [source: The Washington Post]. Throughout the month of January 2008, Obama's campaign raised $32 million, the most raised by any candidate in the 2008 primary race to that point [source: NPR].
"We continue to build a grassroots movement that makes us best-positioned to compete financially in the primaries and caucuses coming up," wrote campaign manager David Plouffe. Much of this is generated through online contributions. From midnight of Jan. 9 to the following morning, the Obama campaign received $500,000 online alone [source: The Washington Post].
Obama also has the support of industry, although some more than others. He ranks at or near the top of contributions received from the pharmaceutical industry, retirement associations, securities and investments outfits, the entertainment, banking, computer and Internet industries, education organizations, health care, law firms and investment industry. He ranks near the bottom of contributions received from lobbying organizations, oil companies and the tobacco industry [source: Open Secrets.org].
Obama's campaign took a PR hit when one of his supporters, Chicago-area developer Tony Rezko, was arrested on Jan. 28, 2008, on federal charges of conspiracy, influence peddling and demanding kickbacks. The candidate told reporters that he planned on ridding his campaign of $80,000 contributed by Rezko [source: CNN]. Obama had worked for non profit groups that had ties with Rezko's development company and worked five to seven hours directly for Rezko's firm [source: Chicago Tribune]; the developer had contributed and helped raise about $120,000 for Obama's 2004 Senate campaign [source: ABC News]; and Obama as Senator wrote two letters supporting a Rezko venture [source: CNN]. The Senator reportedly gave away or returned $44,000 of contributions from Rezko and promised another $40,350 would be donated to charities [source: Chicago Tribune].
A deal involving a house that Obama and his family purchased in Chicago in 2005 has come into question. The seller is reported to have wanted to sell two adjacent properties at once. The Obama's purchased one as their home for approximately $300,000 below the asking price. Rezko's wife, Rita, purchased the other house at asking price. Later, the Rezko's sold a strip of land belonging to the second property to the Obama's. There is no mention of Obama in any of the federal charges filed against Rezko [source: The New York Times].
Obama's and rival campaigns got creative during the 2008 primary race by extending their reach across the Atlantic and mining a previously neglected source of campaign contributions: expatriates -- Americans living abroad. Obama's wife, Michelle, hosted a fundraiser in London in October 2007. Unsolicited contributions from expatriates overseas also came in. By Sept.18, 2007 Obama's campaign had raised $222,000 from Americans living overseas, compared to $26,430 for rival Edwards and $10,950 for Clinton [source: The Washington Post].
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