I thought this was really interesting:
For example, what percentage of Bush’s donors who gave more than $1,000 in 2000 do you think gave to the President again in 2004? I would have guessed in the neighborhood of eighty percent, but the CFI study found that only 31 percent gave again in 2004. For donors of $200 or more, it dropped to 30 percent. What’s more, only 24 percent of Gore donors from 2000 and 21 percent of Bradley donors in 2000 gave to any Democratic presidential candidate in 2004.
“It turns out there’s a lot more churning in the system than the political professionals normally expect,” Malbin said. “We picture a candidate going back to the old list, going to the same old, same old again and again, but not that’s really the way it works. People are constantly coming in and then leaving the pool of donors. Today, there are a lot of old donors who haven’t given yet – and who may not give at all.”
Those kinds of statistics have interesting implications for the debate about campaign finance restrictions.
