Posted on 10/16/2011 12:59:41 PM PDT by bimboeruption
U.S. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya may weigh on the minds of voters next year, but during the early months of the 2012 election cycle, members of the U.S. Armed Forces who are active political donors are mainly rallying around two candidates, according to a new analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics.
Those candidates are President Barack Obama and libertarian-leaning Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas).
Overall, individuals who listed their occupation as one of the branches of the military or the U.S. Department of Defense have donated about $78,000 to presidential candidates, according to the Center's analysis of donors who contributed at least $200 during the first months of the 2012 presidential campaign.
Obama has collected 44 percent of these funds, or about $34,500, according to the Center's research.
As president, Obama has worked to wind down U.S. involvement in Iraq. He also oversaw the killing of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden in Pakistan by Navy SEALs, approved U.S. military involvement in Libya, expanded the use of drones for counterterrorism attacks and increased U.S. forces in Afghanistan, although his administration is planning to draw down troops from the Afghan surge by next summer.
On the Republican side of the aisle, Paul has collected the most contributions from active military members and DoD employees. Paul, who stresses a non-interventionist approach on the campaign trail, has received about $32,100 from these sources, according to the Center's research -- nearly as much as Obama.
Paul's haul is nearly eight times larger than that of his GOP rival Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, who has said that he favors bringing troops home from Afghanistan "as soon as the generals think it's okay."
For his part, Romney has raised $4,100 from members of the Armed Forces, the Center's research indicates.
Ex-Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), who has defended the United States' overseas military campaigns on the stump and during recent GOP debates, meanwhile, has collected just $250 from military members, according to the Center's research.
During the 2008 presidential election, Obama and Paul both also fared well with military donors, as OpenSecrets Blog previously reported.
Here is a table showing how much current presidential candidates have raised from these sources as of June 30, the date of the most recent campaign finance reports.
Candidate Total Barack Obama $34,482 Ron Paul $32,089 Mitt Romney $4,100 Herman Cain $3,500 Michele Bachmann $2,550 Newt Gingrich $900 Rick Santorum $250
Note: Third-quarter fund-raising reports will be filed with the Federal Election Commission next month -- including the first reports for candidates such as Gov. Rick Perry of Texas and ex-Gov. Jon Huntsman of Utah, neither of whom announce their presidential campaigns until after the second-quarter campaign finance reporting deadline.
Center for Responsive Politics senior researcher Doug Weber contributed to this report
Can any one explain to me why military donors gave more money to Obama and Paul than the other candidates?
In the case of Paul, they recognize that policing the world is a fool’s errand and only undermines true national defense.
Yeah, seems to make no sense. Obama and Paul want to weaken our military. Go figure.
Obama has got us involved in wars in 5 different countries in 3 years. If you like foreign adventure, he's your man.
Ron Paul is an isolationist who wants all the troops brought home. If you don't want to fight, vote for Ron Paul.
[/jk]
These are SINGLE troops.
I am married to a soldier. When *we* donate, I’m listed as the donor and ‘homemaker’ is my occupation.
According to the records, my soldier-husband hasn’t made a donation yet.
Look at the amounts. Our service members give a LOT more than that.
Another rehashed canard trying to make it appear Ron Paul and Obama have Military support? Paul tried this in the 2008 campaign.
http://www.americanconservativedaily.com/2007/07/unspinning-the-latest-ron-paul-spin/
http://www.americanconservativedaily.com/2007/08/vets-find-republicans-more-favorable-but-paul-who/
Surprising, if not laughable that they would try it again.
Sorry, had to fix that for you.
the ones who weaken our military are the ones who want it to be a global cop. The founders never intended that.
And then NPR let it slip out (Hillary was still in the race): "How many people are in your organization, sir?"
"Uhhhhhhh, three."
I wouldn’t give either of them the sweat off of my scrotum area after an exercise work out.
Paul voted to homosexualize the military. I can’t believe the majority of service people would be happy with that.
In the case of the village idiot from TX-14, there was a discussion on one of the paultard forums the last go around where they went over ways to inflate certain demographic numbers IE military support.
In the case of the illegal alien who's squatting in the White House, it's the government union DOD civilians.
hear, hear
> bimboeruption: Can any one explain to me why military donors gave more money to Obama and Paul than the other candidates?
about author Michael Beckel:
“Michael Beckel is a former senior editorial fellow at Mother Jones.”
http://motherjones.com/authors/michael-beckel
They don't. This was debunked in the last election. The articles make it seem as though it is overwhelming but if you look at the donations on sites like opensecrets, you'll see they are from relatively few donors. I think it worked out to be .001% of military personnel for Paul. These tracking sites only track donations over $250 so they leave out a majority of donors that it is hard to track. There also was a thread exposed on one of the Paul fan sites in the last election where some people were bragging they were 'helping' those numbers by putting down 'DOD' (or some variance) as the employer. One guy even named his band USMC so he could.
Paul voted to homosexualize the military. I can’t believe the majority of service people would be happy with that.
If not for Free Republic, the topic is not even discussed. I am not sure why but military folks are pretty quiet about it at least at the base I am at.
They are making a big thing over this. 34,000 to Obama? Really? That is a drop in the bucket when you figure there is 1.3 million military members. I think they are making things out of nothing. There are some liberal folks in the military no doubt. Some military folks are even supporting RINO Romney and Perry so you have all kinds.
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