The Color of Money -- National Contributions by Size

   NATIONAL OVERVIEW
   Overall Contributions
   Top States
   Top Metro Areas
   Top Zip Codes
   Size of Contributions

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"The statistics in the Color of Money demonstrate the point we all know intuitively: communities of color and the poor are severely underrepresented because of their inability to keep pace with the campaign contributions from wealthier, non-minority communities. The disparity underscores why legislators spend 100 hours on telecommunications reform and 10 hours on welfare reform."

-Dr. William E. Spriggs, Executive Director, National Urban League Institute for Opportunity and Equality

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COMPARING THE 2004 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES (Methodology)

Presidential Candidate
Total individual ($200+) federal contributions
Per capita (population 18 and over)
Percent from predominantly Non-Hispanic white zip codes
(non-Hispanic white population is equal to or more than 50% of the population)
Percent from zip codes predominantly people of color
(population that is not non-Hispanic white is equal or more than 50% of the population)
Percent from wealthy zip codes
(more than 24.6% of households making $100,000/year or higher, twice the national average)
Percent from zip codes with high levels of poverty
(more than 23.5% of households in poverty, twice the national average)

George W. Bush (R)
$154,091,704
$0.74
91.7%
8.3%
50.6%
3.6%

John Kerry (D)
$106,243,368
$0.51
89.3%
10.7%
57.8%
4.5%

Howard Dean (D)
$19,390,984
$0.09
89.0%
11.0%
50.0%
4.1%

John Edwards (D)
$17,991,816
$0.09
86.5%
13.5%
42.7%
7.9%

Joe Lieberman (D-Conn)
$12,428,250
$0.06
88.7%
11.3%
67.7%
3.6%

Richard A. Gephardt (D)
$11,883,670
$0.06
89.0%
11.0%
53.8%
6.0%

Wesley Clark (D)
$11,161,875
$0.05
89.8%
10.2%
57.1%
4.3%

Bob Graham (D)
$3,701,630
$0.02
78.3%
21.7%
40.9%
5.2%

Dennis J. Kucinich (D)
$2,215,801
$0.01
87.5%
12.5%
32.9%
5.4%

Carol Moseley Braun (D)
$367,622
$0.00
62.5%
37.5%
43.7%
14.6%

Al Sharpton (D)
$366,440
$0.00
63.8%
36.2%
42.7%
17.5%

All Democrats
$185,751,456
$0.89
88.6%
11.4%
55.2%
4.9%

Ralph Nader (3)
$522,729
$0.00
87.1%
12.9%
41.9%
3.8%

Methodology

Campaign finance data

Campaign finance data include all contributions from individuals of $200 or more to federal candidates, political action committees (PACs) and political parties, totaled by the zip code listed by the donor. Percentages to parties are based on individual contributions to candidates and party committees; however, they exclude contributions to Political Action Committees (PACs), which do not have a party affiliation. The data were provided by the Center for Responsive Politics (www.opensecrets.org), a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to analyzing campaign finance data from the Federal Election Commission (FEC).

For more detailed information on campaign finance data, please click here.

Race and Ethnicity

U.S. 2000 Census data were provided by the Lewis Mumford Center at the University of Albany (http://mumford1.dyndns.org/cen2000/report.html). The categorization of the population into racial and ethnic categories is rife with complexities. Increasingly Americans identify as more than one race and/or ethnicity. The American Hispanic population is incredibly diverse, representing a wide variety of national backgrounds and cultures.

Click here to learn more about the Lewis Mumford Centerâ€™s methodology in analyzing census data by race and ethnicity.

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