Last but not least: 54,800 dollars for parking fees
The primary marathon on «Super Tuesday» marks the preliminary climax of a spending spree unprecedented in U.S. presidential elections. The candidates raised a total of 582 million dollars in campaign contributions. The bulk of these funds went toward television advertising.
The pre-election marathon on "Super Tuesday" is the preliminary climax of an unprecedented material battle for the US presidential elections. Last year, the candidates and the nominee raised a total of 582 million dollars in donations. Four years ago, the total at the same time was 257 million dollars, eight years ago it was "only" 171 million dollars. These are the figures from the financial reports that the candidates had to submit to the US Federal Election Commission (FEC). The majority of these sums were spent on expensive television advertising. The Democrats now have a clear advantage: by the end of 2007, their candidates had received a total of 317 million dollars in donations, while the Republicans had received 265 million dollars. The uncrowned fundraising kings of this election season are the Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. Clinton raised a total of 115 million dollars in 2007, Obama 102 million dollars. By comparison, the Republicans: Mitt Romney raised the highest sum with 88 million dollars, including 35 million dollars from his personal fortune, followed by Rudolph Giuliani in second place with 61 million dollars and John McCain in third place with just 41 million dollars.
However, the submitted financial reports also reveal a few nice details from the election campaign. For example, Hillary Clinton spent 54,800 dollars on parking fees alone in 2007, and Barack Obama invested 997,000 dollars in letter postage. However, the material battle does not end there. Experts estimate that the candidates will have spent one to two billion dollars by the time of the presidential election on November 4, 2008. Did someone say plutocracy?
