The Daily O’Collegian

Of the nearly $800 million raised in 2008 presidential campaign money thus far, more than $3 million has come from Oklahoma donors, according to http://www.opensecrets.org.

Oklahoma ranks 27th nationally in donations, contributing about 0.4 percent of the national total, and is 28th in population with 3,617, 316, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This means slightly less than $1 per person in the state has been donated to presidential campaigns.

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama may be ahead in the presidential money race, but Democrat Hillary Clinton has raised quite a bit more in Oklahoma than he has.

Clinton raised $776,444, according to http://www.opensecrets.org, which is almost one-fourth of the statewide total raised for all candidates. Obama has raised $567,859 from donors in the state, while Republican John McCain has raised $305,952.

However, Obama and McCain have each received more from Stillwater residents than Clinton has. Altogether, Stillwater residents have donated $8,747 to Obama, according to the Federal Election Commission. Residents have donated $7,248 to Clinton and $8,592 to McCain.

The amount raised is almost double the $416.2 million that was reported in November.

Michelle Ryan, a spokesperson for the Federal Election Commission, said campaign money can be used for a number of things. These may include “paying for campaign purposes, defraying ordinary and necessary expenses incurred in connection with the duties of a Federal office-holder, unlimited transfers to national, state and local party committees, charitable donations, and other lawful purposes,” she said.

Ryan said personal use of campaign money is prohibited.

A majority of presidential campaign money comes from individual donations, Ryan said.

The federal limit for an individual to donate is $2,300 in an election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission regulations.

However, federal candidates can spend an unlimited amount of their personal money to finance their campaign, with the only restriction being if they choose to accept presidential public financing, Ryan said.

“The Federal Election Commission administered the first public financing program in 1976,” she said. “Eligible presidential candidates may receive primary matching money from the U.S. Treasury, and party nominees may elect to receive a public financing grant in the general election.”

Democratic presidential hopefuls have raised $470.6 million, more than half of the money raised, according to http://www.opensecrets.org.

Republicans have raised $321.6 million. Of the total, the remaining three candidates received $467.7 million. Obama and Clinton have had $193.6 million and $169 million donated, respectively. McCain has received $65.6 million.

The Operating Engineers Union is the No. 1 donating public action committee, with almost $2 million donated, according to http://www.opensecrets.org. Of this, 86 percent has gone to Democratic presidential candidates while 14 percent has gone to Republicans.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers is the second top-donating PAC, with more than $1.5 million donated, 98 percent of which went to Democrats, while 2 percent went to Republicans.

Of the top 20 donating PACs, one-fourth gave more than 50 percent of the money raised to Republican candidates.

Payne County Republicans Chairwoman Debbie House did not immediately return calls for comment regarding campaign fundraising and party support.

Ray L. Wall, co-chair of the Payne County Democrats, said different members of the organization support different candidates.

“Some support one, some support the other,” he said.

Payne County Democrats has not fundraised to contribute to either of the presidential candidates, but various individuals in the organization have, he said. Wall himself has not donated yet, but said he probably will.

Wall said he has recently changed his mind about which candidate to support.

“I initially was supporting Hillary Clinton, but now I think I’m more in favor of Barack Obama,” he said. “I believe that he probably is less influenced by a lot of people I believe that are more influential in Hillary’s campaign.

He said the occurrence that swayed his decision was the $15 million in unaccounted-for income for Bill and Hillary Clinton this past year.

“There’s a large chunk of income there that simply hasn’t been identified and that bothers me,” he said. “I think that people running for president should be very transparent about their finances and everything else.”

However, he said he thinks both candidates would make great presidents and “probably have a lot of things they could offer.”

Although third-party candidates have hardly raised any campaign money, Angelia O’Dell, chairwoman of the Libertarian Party of Oklahoma, said money is being raised. As soon as a candidate is selected, the organization will work to get the money raised to get a third-party candidate on the Oklahoma ballot.

She said a candidate will be decided among the 15 running at the Libertarian National Convention on May 22.

The difference between a third-party candidate and a Democratic or Republican candidate is that the third-party candidate “will not take any money from the government.”

“We take no government assistance at all for our candidates,” she said.

She added that a petition with 27,000 signatures of registered voters and $200,000 has to be raised by a July 15 deadline for a third-party candidate to be able to run in Oklahoma.

Susan Holmes, a delegate to the Constitution Party National Convention, said Oklahoma is one of the hardest states in which to get a third party presidential candidate on the ballot and that every state other than Oklahoma will probably have a Constitution Party candidate on the ballot.

She said that she has been working on the party for 12 years to help get the stringent ballot access laws amended, and that she expects it will eventually change.

She said that rather than spending money on campaigning, third party candidates have to spend money to get ballot access.

“The other parties, the Democrats and Republicans, are spending their money on campaigns and on ads,” she said. “And they say, ‘Too bad for you, you get to spend your money on ballot access.’

“They don’t want to lose power … most of them just care about keeping their party in power,” she said. “That’s unfortunate but true.”