Presidential Campaigns

Campaign Finance Analyses for Presidential Election

The 2008 Presidential Campaigns of John McCain and Barack Obama are on a pace to accept record numbers of campaign contributions, and produce record amounts of campaign spending. This page presents a series of visual reports that will help you analyze patters in campaign spending for the presidential candidates in the 2008 presidential election cycle. The political contribution reports include data from both the 2008 general campaign and the primary campaigns as well. Additional reports will be added to this page frequently.

McCain Campaign Finance Network

This interactive chart shows the network of campaign finance transactions related to Presidential Candidate John McCain. The links are formed through transfers of campaign funds between committees, and also through independent expenditures either for or against the candidate. The colored triangular edges between nodes show all such transactions related to the node in the middle of the chart. Click on any node (committee) in the chart and it will move to the middle and update to show all similar transactions as related to the new middle node. Red edges are independent expenditures against the candidate, green edges are independent expenditures in support of the candidate, and blue edges are transfers of contributions between committees. The thin black lines show all other connections between all of the remaining nodes in the network. This unique visual display allows you to interactively explore and understand the patterns of financial and political connections between political candidates, party committees, and independent committees during the current election cycle. See our Guide to Campaign Network Charts for a fuller explanation.

Itemized Campaign Expenditures

A look at the monthly itemized campaign expenditures by the presidential candidates John McCain and Barak Obama during the 2008 presidential election cycle.
Read more... [Itemized Campaign Expenditures]

Obama Campaign Finance Network

This interactive chart shows the network of campaign finance transactions related to Presidential Candidate Barack Obama. The links are formed through transfers of campaign funds between committees, and also through independent expenditures either for or against the candidate. The colored triangular edges between nodes show all such transactions related to the node in the middle of the chart. Click on any node (committee) in the chart and it will move to the middle and update to show all similar transactions as related to the new middle node. Red edges are independent expenditures against the candidate, green edges are independent expenditures in support of the candidate, and blue edges are transfers of contributions between committees. The thin black lines show all other connections between all of the remaining nodes in the network. This unique visual display allows you to interactively explore and understand the patterns of financial and political connections between political candidates, party committees, and independent committees during the current election cycle. See our Guide to Campaign Network Charts for a fuller explanation.

Itemized Individual Campaign Contributions

A look at the monthly itemized individual contributions to the active presidential candidates as reported to the FEC in regular filings. Note that unitemized contributions are not included in this chart. By law, contributions totalling less than $200 per individual do not need to be itemized by the candidates in their filings. The McCain campaign has pledged to report all contributions regardless of size, however the Obama campaign has chosen not to do so. As such the actual contributions received from individuals by the Obama campaign is significantly higher than is shown on this chart.

Breakdown by Contribution Amount

This chart shows a breakdown of all individual campaign contributions made to the presidential principle and joint fundraising committees based on the size of the contribution.
Read more... [Breakdown by Contribution Amount]

Video Walkthrough of Campaign Network Charts

This short video demonstrates an interactive exploration of the political contribution dataset. It begins showing the financial connections related to Barak Obama, along with the expenditures for and against Obama by other committees. Then it explores linkage to the other committees to see how they relate to John McCain. Finally MoveOn.org is highlighted to show how it has been spending money in favor of Obama and against McCain.

Guide to Campaign Network Charts

This short article will tell you how to view and understand the Connection Flow campaign network charts. At first they may seem difficult to understand, but the principles are quite simple.
Read more... [Guide to Campaign Network Charts]

Third Party Expenditures For/Against Candidates

This chart shows the total expenditures for or against Obama and McCain by third party registered committees. Blue bars represent expenditures that favor Obama (or are against McCain). Red bars show expenditures that favor McCain (or are against Obama).
Read more... [Third Party Expenditures For/Against Candidates]