If the presidential primary elections were decided by the amount of money CFOs contributed to the candidates, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) would win the Democratic nomination by a landslide and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney would beat Arizona Sen. John McCain for the top slot on the Republican ticket by a hefty margin.
In dollar figures, Clinton brought in $186,244 from CFO contributions compared to Illinois Sen. Barack Obama’s $87,999. Among Republicans, Romney drew $63,625, McCain $44,895, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee $17,450 and former congressman Ron Paul of Texas, $9,716.
Out of the 426 CFOs who have made contributions through the fourth quarter of 2007, 115 backed Clinton and 76 supported Obama, the only two Democratic candidates still vying for the White House. On the GOP side, Romney drew backing from 47 finance chiefs, with current frontrunner McCain drawing 30 contributors; Huckabee 16; and Paul, 12.
All told, finance chiefs have donated $614,198 to presidential candidates, according to search of Fundrace 2008, an online database. Democratic contenders have reaped $444,181, with $170,017 going to Republican contenders.
CFO.com obtained the data by searching under “CFO” on the database assembled by The Huffington Post, a left-of-center website. The figures are based on individual contributions to a presidential candidate’s campaign or national committee and culled from public records filed with the Federal Election Commission in the 2004 and 2008 election cycle.
Contributions from the country’s finance chiefs were largely tracked by their bosses, only a lot more so. A whopping 3,114 campaign contributors who claim “CEO” as their occupation contributed $5.5 million to the candidates. Democratic contributions from chief executives totaled $4,078,978, while Republican candidates took in $1,460,931.
