That’s how much money the convention’s host committee ultimately raised to produce the lavish four-day gala at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul. Nearly 90 percent of the GOP money came from donors who contributed at least $250,000, with more than 40 percent tapped from just 15 contributors who chipped in over $1 million.

The Democratic festivities in Denver were just as lavishly financed by corporations, unions and individuals. The Mile High City’s host committee raked in $61 million for the cause, with 72 percent of the funds coming from contributors who gave upward of $250,000.

The final contribution tallies are included in financial disclosure forms that the host committees are required to file 60 days after the close of the conventions and analyzed in a new report by the Campaign Finance Institute (CFI). Because such organizations are set up as nonprofit groups, contributors can make unlimited, tax-exempt contributions — constituting a major loophole in campaign finance laws. The party conventions provide a unique opportunity for special interests to buy access to influential people while receiving little public scrutiny. In Minnesota the fundraising drive was spearheaded by the state’s two most prominent Republican politicians, Sen. Norm Coleman and Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

“These conventions were floated by huge donors giving much more than they’re ever allowed to give normally to support political parties and presidential candidates,” says Steve Weissman, associate director for policy at CFI.

The $118 million total for both parties fell short of the $142 million raised in 2004 (when conventions were held in the pricier cities of Boston and New York), but is more than double the haul ($56 million) in 2000. The 2008 fundraising figures dwarf the $16 million in public funds provided to each party to produce their conventions.

Not surprisingly many of the major contributors to the festivities in St. Paul and Denver are also big-time influence peddlers in Washington. These organizations have spent $1.6 billion on lobbying expenses in just the last four years, while chipping in $273 million to federal candidates and parties, according to the CFI analysis. Verizon, for instance, which has a serious financial stake in telecommunications policy and has fought against “net neutrality” legislation, contributed roughly $800,000 to the two host committees. Meanwhile in the previous two election cycles it spent $76 million on lobbying and gave $5.7 million to federal campaigns and political parties.

While the bulk of the donations disclosed by the host committees prior to the conventions came from corporations (see MnIndy’s coverage of this here and here), a significant chunk of change was also contributed by wealthy individuals or the foundations they control. Such donors were responsible for $4.3 million of the GOP haul, most notably a $2 million contribution from hedge fund manager Raymond Dalio. The founder of Bridgewater Associates is also a major Republican campaign contributor, providing $152,000 in federal contributions since 2005.

Most of the Republican donations from wealthy individuals were raised in the latter stages of the fundraising drive, particularly after Robert Wood “Woody” Johnson, IV was added as the host committee’s national finance chair in July. “They had Woody Johnson going after all his rich friends,” notes Weissman.

Many of the corporations currently receiving taxpayer funds from the various federal bailout plans gave lavishly to the two host committees. American International Group, for instance, one of the country’s largest insurance companies and the recipient so far of roughly $150 billion in bailout funds, contributed $1.5 million to the two host committees. Beleagured housing finance company Freddie Mac, which was taken over by the federal government in September, also chipped in $500,000. In total, according to the CFI analysis, key actors in the ongoing financial crisis contributed $14 million to the conventions.

Under campaign finance laws, corporations are prohibited from contributing money to sway federal elections. For many years, special interests thwarted the intent of this prohibition by funneling so-called soft money donations to the two major parties. These contributions were supposedly for nonpartisan efforts such as voter-registration drives, but in reality they served as a primary means by which companies could purchase influence with politicians.

Passage of the 2002 McCain-Feingold act largely closed this loophole, barring such soft-money donations to the parties. But fund-raising to support political conventions, which is regulated by both the Internal Revenue Service and the Federal Elections Commission, falls outside the purview of this legislation.

CFI and other watchdog organizations have called on Congress to overhaul campaign-finance laws so that unlimited contributions can no longer be made to convention host committees. Under a proposal put forth by the bi-partisan Presidential Task Force on Financing Presidential Nominations, all convention expenses would be financed by the national party committees. Under such a scenario, corporations and unions would no longer be permitted to make contributions to the conventions, while individuals would be required to follow restrictions already in place for such donations ($28,500 to a party committee per year).

Sen. Barack Obama indicated during the campaign that he supports removing unlimited, soft-money contributions from the funding of political conventions — although no specific proposal was outlined. Weissman says the president-elect now has the opportunity to act on that principal. “I think if he raised it, he would be putting Congress in a position where they would have to do it,” he says.

Protesters blame police for violence that broke out at the conclusion of last night’s protest parade organized by the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign. The group’s national organizer, Cheri Honkala, spoke to reporters this morning at Bushville, the temporary encampment set up by activists at 400 Western Ave. in St. Paul. “As a resident of Minnesota, I’m incredibly ashamed,” Honkala said. “I think our security team did a pretty damn good jop keeping the peace yesterday.”

Indeed the march was largely without incident until arriving at the Capitol. There it converged with the Ripple Effect concert where Rage Against the Machine was slated to perform. As documented by Jeff Severns Guntzel in this space, events quickly spiraled out of control with tear gas and explosive sound devices utilized by cops.

Honkala said anarchists, who have been blamed for much of the tumult on the streets of St. Paul during the RNC, were not at fault for last night’s trouble. “No fringe group took away from what happened yesterday,” she said. “It was those guys dressed all in black — I mean the police officers all dressed in black — that took away from our message.”

More than 300 people have been locked up during the first two days of the RNC, but Honkala dismissed the arrests as primarily trumped up allegations. “I highly doubt that they’ll get any convictions from any of these arrests,” she said. “Most of the folks were participating in using their First Amendment rights and practicing their right to assemble.”

Her comments were backed up by others at the press conference. Shamako Noble, an activist from San Jose, California, said police actions actually prevented the crowd from peacefully dispersing last night. “They almost trapped people in,” he said. “It seems to me that you have to justify $50 million somehow. I don’t think it was anything that we actually did.”

At a series of press conferences this week, St. Paul Police Chief John Harrington has defended the tactics utilized by police. “They did a great job in the face of a lot of challenges,” he said after the first day of disturbances. “They did not overreact.”

As this morning’s press conference took place, volunteers were packing up the remnants of Bushville. People filled trash bags and stacked mattresses. A couple couches still sat on the otherwise near empty lot. Honkala was leaving for a funeral in Philadelphia immediately after speaking with the press. But she vowed that the group will be planning more protests down the road to highlight poverty and economic injustice. “We do marches because we don’t have the money for lobbyists, we don’t have the money for billboards,” she said. “All we have is our voices and we will continue to insure that our voices are not taken away from us.”

Harrington also stated that 283 people have been booked into the Ramsey County Jail so far, including 120 on felony arrests, primarily for criminal damage to property and rioting charges. An additional nine RNC-related arrests were made in Minneapolis overnight.

Harrington characterized as a failure the attempts to thwart the RNC from proceeding. “They came here to try and stop the convention, to crash the gates, to stop the buses,” he said. “They failed. They made numerous attempts to crash the gates and never got in.”

When the press conference was opened to questions, Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman questioned the rough treatment of some reporters by police. She and two of her producers, along with an Associated Press photographer, were arrested yesterday. Harrington said he couldn’t comment on the specific situation but defended cops interactions with reporters generally. “If they are in the midst of a riot, we can’t protect them,” he said. “It will be very difficult for us in a moment of that kind of chaos to make those kinds of fine distinctions.”

Early in the day protesters were joking with the riot police.

This group of anarchists, many of them wearing masks, refused to speak with reporters. Occasionally they would pause in the parade route, allow the marchers ahead to separate themselves and then sprint forward as a group down the road.

As the afternoon dragged on tensions increased. Shortly after 2:30 a phalanx of cops on bikes and motorcycles followed a group of roughly two dozen protesters down Sibley Street.

One person was taken to the ground by a trio of cops and arrested.

The encounter came to a standstill at the intersection of Sibley and 4th streets. Protesters locked arms and refused to budge. The cops kept silent guard while the protesters sang “We Shall Overcome.”

Another individual was arrested at Sibley and John Ireland Boulevard. “Don’t talk to the pigs,” yelled one person at the scene.

This parking garage, at the corner of Wall and Sixth streets, is being used as a temporary holding facility to process protesters who are arrested.

Iraq Veterans Against the War marched from the Capitol to the Xcel Energy Center this morning and one person was arrested. “He volunteered that he wanted, as part of his protest, to be arrested and we accomodated him,” Harrington said. What’s expected to be the biggest march of the RNC, sponsored by the Coalition to Stop the War and March on the RNC, is slated to begin at 1 p.m. at the Capitol.

Mayor Chris Coleman said that there are no plans for mass arrests. “If you’re here to protest peacefully you are welcome in the City of St. Paul,” he said at the press conference. “If you’re here to create civil disturbance, if you’re here to try to shut down the convention , if you’re here to engage in criminal activity, that will not be tolerated and we will deal with that.”

“Think about the tasks he had going into this speech. There was the criticism that he’s just another pretty face and there’s no substance there. I think he had to do three things: He had to bond with the American public–tell a story about his life and who he is that connects with middle class Americans. People want to believe that the president understands them. Second, he had to make the case against McCain and draw out the linkages to Bush. And third, he had to lay out his vision and add some details to what he means by change.

“I think clearly on the last two, he did an exceptionally good job. When he started defining what change meant, it was the first time he’s laid them out in detail. The only area I’m wondering if he could have done a better job of is bonding. I hate to use the old Bill Clinton ‘feel your pain’ line, I think the connection he made with the American public could have been better. I think that’s still a challenge at this point.”

The convention, says Schultz, “started off slow. But by the end, the theme of unity had come across, they projected the image of change, and they made themselves out to be the party of the working class. What will be interesting to see is, there was a 6-point [convention] bump in the polls before Obama’s speech. I want to see what the numbers are after. The second thing is, how many people actually viewed the speech? Because Wednesday night, the night of the Bill Clinton and [Biden] speeches, was actually the weakest [in viewership] of the first three nights. We all presume that more people tuned in last night, but how many people did watch?”

Listen: David Schultz on the Obama speech and the Dems’ good week in Denver (11:07)

It just just so happens that the Alaska delegation to the Democratic National Convention is staying in the same hotel as the entourage from Minnesota. In fact, yesterday former Gov. Tony Knowles, whose re-election plans were thwarted by Sarah Palin in 2006, was roaming the lobby. So I went downstairs to see if I could get some insight into John McCain’s surprise VP pick. I only found two takers — and they had profoundly different opinions of her two-year tenure as governor.

“She’s an amazing woman, and she’s done a very good job for Alaska,” says Charles Degnan (pictured), of Unalakleet, Alaska, citing an overhaul of oil-taxation laws as an important achievement during her tenure. “She’s a woman, she’s capable, she’s young and she’s a dynamic person, so I think it will help him out.”

Harriet Drummond, however, has a profoundly different view of Palin. “It doesn’t show much commitment on her part to the people of Alaska,” says Drummond, an assemblywoman from Anchorage. “Her administration is already under investigation for abuse of power. And she’s got no experience. I would love to see what a debate between her and Joe Biden is going to look like. He will squish her — like a bug.”

Drummond believes Obama can carry Alaska. “We have way more than a fighting chance,” she says, noting that there is now a Democratic majority on the Anchorage Assembly. “Things are changing in Alaska.”

But does Palin on the ticket put it out of reach? “Absolutely not,” she says. “Obama has an enormous number of paid staffers and a great volunteer corps in Alaska. They’ve been working hard for several months now. It’s an uphill slog, but they can do it.”

Here’s the transcript:

It’s Election Day 2008. We Democrats are giving America a wake-up call. Wake up, America. In 2001, the oil companies, the war contractors and the neocon artists seized the economy and have added 4 trillion dollars of unproductive spending to the national debt. We now pay four times more for defense, three times more for gasoline and home heating oil and twice what we paid for health care.

Millions of Americans have lost their jobs, their homes, their health care, their pensions. Trillions of dollars for an unnecessary war paid with borrowed money. Tens of billions of dollars in cash and weapons disappeared into thin air, at the cost of the lives of our troops and innocent Iraqis, while all the president’s oilmen are maneuvering to grab Iraq’s oil.

Borrowed money to bomb bridges in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. No money to rebuild bridges in America. Money to start a hot war with Iran. Now we have another cold war with Russia, while the American economy has become a game of Russian roulette.

If there was an Olympics for misleading, mismanaging and misappropriating, this administration would take the gold. World records for violations of national and international laws. They want another four-year term to continue to alienate our allies, spend our children’s inheritance and hollow out our economy.

We can’t afford another Republican administration. Wake up, America. The insurance companies took over health care. Wake up, America. The pharmaceutical companies took over drug pricing.

Wake up, America. The speculators took over Wall Street. Wake up, America. They want to take your Social Security. Wake up, America. Multinational corporations took over our trade policies, factories are closing, good paying jobs lost.

Wake up, America. We went into Iraq for oil. The oil companies want more. War against Iran will mean $10-a-gallon gasoline. The oil administration wants to drill more, into your wallet. Wake up, America. Weapons contractors want more. An Iran war will cost $5-10 trillion.

This administration can tap our phones. They can’t tap our creative spirit. They can open our mail. They can’t open economic opportunities. They can track our every move. They lost track of the economy while the cost of food, gasoline and electricity skyrockets. They skillfully played our post-9/11 fears and allowed the few to profit at the expense of the many. Every day we get the color orange, while the oil companies, the insurance companies, the speculators, the war contractors get the color green.

Wake up, America. This is not a call for you to take a new direction from right to left. This is call for you to go from down to up. Up with the rights of workers. Up with wages. Up with fair trade. Up with creating millions of good paying jobs, rebuilding our bridges, ports and water systems. Up with creating millions of sustainable energy jobs to lower the cost of energy, lower carbon emissions and protect the environment.

Up with health care for all. Up with education for all. Up with home ownership. Up with guaranteed retirement benefits. Up with peace. Up with prosperity. Up with the Democratic Party. Up with Obama-Biden.

Wake up, America. Wake up, America. Wake up, America.

Until Thursday night, it had been a crowded week for the Democratic National Convention. There were too many delegates and too many reporters jammed into the too-small Pepsi Center. The conversations of the faithful were crowded with anxieties about slipping poll numbers, soft messaging, elusive unity, and the omnipresent Clintons. Memories of disastrous Augusts (John Kerry in 2004, Al Gore in 2000 and Michael Dukakis in 1988) pinched the party’s imagination.

Tonight those hemmed-in feelings dispersed into the breezes of mammoth Invesco Field, where an adoring throng of 84,000 cheered Barack Obama as he accepted his party nomination with a speech– none too lofty and none too soft–that reinfused his historic campaign with a sense of history and horizon that had seemed lacking in recent weeks.

Early on Obama declared “enough,” and that word resonated throughout his 48-minute speech. So did the phrase “Now is the time.” Those simple sentiments bookended a comprehensive indictment of Republican presumptive nominee as honorable but clueless (“It’s not that John McCain doesn’t care. It’s that he doesn’t get it.”) and challenges to his own party (“Democrats, Democrats, we must also admit that fulfilling America’s promise will require more than just money”).

Tough talk on Afghanistan (“We must take out Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights”) was combined with tender feelings toward his grandmother (“She poured everything she had into me”).

After delivering a laundry list of specific policy proposals, Obama returned to the post-partisan rhetoric that helped him prevail over the more traditional style of Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries.

“These — these are the policies I will pursue,” he declared in summation. “And in the weeks ahead, I look forward to debating them with John McCain.”

“But what I will not do,” he went on, “is suggest that the senator takes his positions for political purposes, because one of the things that we have to change in our politics is the idea that people cannot disagree without challenging each other’s character and each other’s patriotism.”

“I’ve got news for you, John McCain,” he finished. “We all put our country first.”

Thus did Obama put a partisan edge on his postpartisanship. He sharpened the choice facing voters 68 days from now without closing the door to his appeals to Republicans and independents. He again demonstrated the political agility that brought him to this historic occasion and almost certainly restored his supporters’ confidence that was a little shaky just a few hours earlier.