Home About Chat Users Issues Party Candidates Polling Firms Media News Polls Calendar Key Races United States President Senate House Governors International

New User Account
"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource." 
Email: Password:

  Cashing In on Obama and McCain
NEWS DETAILS
Parent(s) Race 
ContributorArmyDem 
Last EditedArmyDem  Jul 06, 2008 09:53am
Logged 0
CategoryNews
MediaNewspaper - New York Times
News DateSunday, July 6, 2008 03:00:00 PM UTC0:0
DescriptionBy HANNAH FAIRFIELD AND GRIFF PALMER
Published: July 6, 2008

JOHN McCAIN and Barack Obama are not the only winners to emerge from the long presidential primary season.

The two presumptive nominees, along with the many candidates who bowed out along the way, spent more than $900 million through the end of May, about $470 million more than was spent on primaries in 2000, when both major parties last had competitive primary battles. Nearly half of the current spending has been paid to just a few dozen companies.

Before November, hundreds of additional millions will be paid to the lucky few businesses that have contracts with the winning candidates for campaign necessities like media consulting, airplane charters, direct mail and telemarketing. And as campaign schedules become more crowded, companies that coordinate rallies and events, and those that make signs and bumper stickers, will also rake in dollars.

Even companies that do not cater to the political arena can reap great rewards, according to spending records each candidate has filed with the Federal Election Commission. Bank of America and American Express together received about $7 million in credit card and banking fees from the Obama campaign alone. Verizon was paid more than $4 million by all the candidates combined to put phones into the hands of their employees.
Share
ArticleRead Full Article

NEWS
Date Category Headline Article Contributor

DISCUSSION