Usually, when journalists look at campaign financing, we look at who gave the candidates money. But here is a twist. Both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have Political Action Committees that have doled out thousands of dollars to the very people who will be voting to nominate them.
These recipients are so called "superdelegates," mostly party insiders who may back whomever they wish. Many are elected officials, such as congressmen, governors and the like. If you look at how candidates spend their campaign funds, you will often see that they help finance their political pals. Just go here and type in a congressperson, then click "expenditures" on the left side of the page. You can see how the elected official spends every dime of his or her campaign contributions.
The Center for Responsive Politics finds:
While it would be unseemly for the candidates to hand out
thousands of dollars to primary voters, or to the delegates pledged to
represent the will of those voters, elected officials who are
superdelegates have received at least $890,000 from Obama and Clinton
in the form of campaign contributions over the last three years,
according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
Obama,
who narrowly leads in the count of pledged, "non-super" delegates, has
doled out more than $694,000 to superdelegates from his political
action committee, Hope Fund,
or campaign committee since 2005. Of the 81 elected officials who had
announced as of Feb. 12 that their superdelegate votes would go to the
Illinois senator, 34, or 40 percent of this group, have received
campaign contributions from him in the 2006 or 2008 election cycles,
totaling $228,000. In addition, Obama has been endorsed by 52
superdelegates who haven't held elected office recently and, therefore,
didn't receive campaign contributions from him.
Clinton does not appear to have been as openhanded. Her PAC, HILLPAC,
and campaign committee appear to have distributed $195,500 to
superdelegates. Only 12 percent of her elected superdelegates, or 13 of
109 who have said they will back her, have received campaign
contributions, totaling about $95,000 since 2005. An additional 128
unelected superdelegates support Clinton, according to a blog tracking
superdelegates and their endorsements, 2008 Democratic Convention Watch.
Because superdelegates will make up around 20 percent of 4,000
delegates to the Democratic convention in August--Republicans don't
have superdelegates—Clinton and Obama are aggressively wooing the more
than 400 superdelegates who haven't yet made up their minds. Since 2005
Obama has given 52 of the undecided superdelegates a total of at least
$363,900, while Clinton has given a total of $88,000 to 15 of them.
Many superdelegates to the 2008 Democratic Convention have officially announced whom they plan to nominate. Others have not yet endorsed a candidate.
