Big Money, Big Gap
All eyes are on the Nevada and South Carolina (Republican) presidential primaries this weekend and Public Campaign's Nancy Watzman takes a look at the zipcodes giving the most to candidates in these two races in her newest post at Off the Bus. Not surprisingly the money's coming from wealthy, predominantly white communities. Whose voice is being heard on the campaign trail?This just continues the pattern we've seen in past presidential cycles and argues strongly in favor of pursuing a Clean Elections approach to financing campaigns:In 2004, 90 percent of campaign contributions to Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) and President George W. Bush came from non-Hispanic white zip codes, according to Color of Money. Places like the Upper East Side in NewYork City or Beverly Hills donate millions of dollars every cycle.If money buys influence, then rich white people are cornering the market in the 2008 election cycle. There are only a few weeks left in the wealth primary. Several candidates have already dropped out because they couldn't get enough donors to pony up.