Dave Larsen writes about higher education.
Kelly Mori writes about health and higher education.Home > Blogs > On Campus > Archives > 2008 > October > 31 > Entry
Educators open wallets for Obama
Greetings. I’m Kelly Mori, health and higher education reporter for the Springfield News-Sun. I’ve joined the On Campus blog to periodically share some thoughts on what’s happening in higher education while giving some face time to Wittenberg, Cedarville and Urbana universities and Clark State Community College.
Now, on to the title of today’s blog.
It might not be a surprise to hear that academe favors Democrat Barack Obama over Republican John McCain. However, The Chronicle of Higher Education has been able to quantify that assumption with some interesting campaign contribution numbers from the Center for Responsive Politics.
According to the Chronicle, college employees have donated $12.2 million to Obama’s campaign compared to $1.5 million to McCain. It’s the widest spread since the Center started keeping track in 1992.
A good example is the the University of California where employees donated the most to both candidates but certainly not equally, with $40,000 going to McCain and $778,000 to Obama.
Why the difference? The Chronicle is a subscription site so I can’t link you to it but here are some highlights: Some cite dissatisfaction with the current administration and a professional connection to Obama, who taught constitutional law as a lecturer at the University of Chicago. Democrats stated Obama “sees issues in shades of gray and appears to grasp policy nuances,” the Chronicle said.
Many of McCain’s donations came from business, law and medical schools. The Republican’s more than 20 years of experience in the U.S. Senate, compared with Obama’s first term, was the deciding factor for many McCain supporters. In today’s Ohio Politics blog, William Hershey talks about the spending side of things. Read Bill Hershey’s blog on candidate spending.
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