Campaign money trail: Traditional big biz GOP donors are giving more to Obama and Clinton this time

Today Brody Mullins of the Wall Street Journal crunches numbers from the Center for Responsive Politics on business donations to the presidential campaigns and finds that John McCain is trailing his Democratic opponents in funding from the seven major industrial sectors that have been the most steadfast donors to the GOP.

Mullins writes:

“Sen. McCain has beaten Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama in only one, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan organization. Even that one, transportation, is a close call. Among the seven combined, the expected Republican nominee raised $13.1 million through February, compared with $22.5 million for Sen. Obama and $27.1 million for Sen. Clinton.

“The Republican standard-bearer’s attempt to claw back financial support from the GOP’s business base could be a pivotal factor in determining the outcome of the presidential race. Employees of financial-services, insurance and real-estate companies so far have donated to Sen. Obama over Sen. McCain by almost two-to-one — and favored Sen. Clinton by even more. Health-care and pharmaceutical firms have given three times as much to each of the two Democrats as to Sen. McCain. Defense firms put Sen. McCain ahead of Sen. Obama, but behind Sen. Clinton. Energy, construction and agribusiness firms have given more to both Democrats.”

I dropped a note to Doug Henwood, the economics journalist and publisher of Left Business Observer, to ask what he made of the trends. Are they a sign that Republican economic policies are too rapacious and short-sighted even for corporate America? His reply: “My sense is that 1) they like to go with winners, and they think a Dem is virtually certain to win, 2) the Bush economy has been pretty shitty – profits were good, but everything else was bad, and now it’s getting worse, and 3) they see the public mood is ugly and realize we need some repair work.”

Read the Mullins article.
Read the companion piece about McCain’s continuing trouble with GOP conservatives.

More campaign money news:

March Dem totals: Eric Kleefeld of TPM reports that the Obama campaign is trumpeting a $30 million fundraising month in March, compared to an expected $20 million for Hillary Clinton. In February, Obama raised roughly $55 million to Clinton’s $35 million.

Clinton’s mounting deficit: At Slate’s Hillary DeathWatch column, Christopher Beam writes that “Clinton’s debts are reportedly as high as $9 million, not including her $5 million self-loan.” Politico has a pair of stories on Clinton’s debt troubles by Kenneth P. Vogel: a general piece about the campaign’s unpaid bills and another on Clinton’s failure to pay the $292,000 health insurance tab for her campaign staff.