By Thomas B. Edsall / Washington Post
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WASHINGTON -- A survey of donors to congressional campaigns confirms widespread speculation that recently enacted campaign finance legislation will benefit Republican candidates more than Democrats.
Although it bans most "soft money" mega-contributions made largely by corporations, unions and very rich people, the measure raised "hard money" limits so that an individual will be able to give $2,000, instead of $1,000, to each favored federal candidate in primary and general elections.
The survey of donors, described by Clyde Wilcox of Georgetown University, John C. Green of the University of Akron and four others, found that 15 percent of the respondents said they would capitalize on the higher contributing limits.
These "expanded givers" were decisively more Republican -- including more men -- and were wealthier than the entire sample.
"Expanded givers tend to be wealthy, middle-aged businessmen" who support tax cuts, are disproportionately strong Republicans and strong conservatives. Their increased participation "is likely to intensify the existing, upper-status bias of the donor pool and reduce the representation of women," the authors wrote in the magazine Public Perspective.
Five percent of the donors surveyed said they will reduce the amounts they give, generally to voice their opposition to increased political spending. Democrats make up far more of these "reduced givers" than the expanded givers.
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