For the Wealthiest Donors, 2014 Was a Very Good Year

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http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-12-31/for-the-wealthiest-political-donors-it-was-a-very-good-year

Here's a bit of perspective on the ever-rising cost of elections, and the big-money donors who finance them: Three of the country's wealthiest political contributors each saw their net worth grow in 2014 by more than $3.7 billion, the entire cost of the midterm elections.

And as the 2016 presidential election approaches, almost all of those donors have even more cash to burn. The only top political donor who lost money in 2014, Sheldon Adelson, still has a fortune greater than the annual gross domestic product of Zambia, so playing in U.S. politics remains well within his financial range.

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In total, 11 of the donors that Bloomberg tracks added a combined $33 billion to their wealth in a single year....

The tab for the House and Senate elections came to $3.7 billion, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics in Washington. Warren Buffett, Larry Ellison, and Laurene Powell Jobs each could have covered all of that with the wealth they accumulated in the past 12 months. James Simons and George Soros would have come pretty close.

Some of that wealth, combined with loosening campaign-finance restrictions and a political class growing ever more comfortable with the new world of virtually unlimited donations, could start flowing to campaigns in the next few months as candidates prepare for the 2016 presidential race. Wealthy donors will have even more giving options after Congress voted to raise the limits on how much individuals can give to political parties

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It is absolutely INSANE how we allow these people to influence our politics! . .

[Doctor_J]

1. And yet some are surprised that the working poor won't trudge out and vote for these same pols

none so blind as those who will not see