Perry, for instance, unsurprisingly gets substantial contributions from the oil and gas industry. Wall Street is investing heavily in Mitt Romney, as financial firms are the top industrydonor to his coffers. But the top category for donations to Herman Cain, as determined by the watchdog group Center for Responsive Politics , is simply listed as “retired.” Second is “miscellaneous business.”
If there is a pattern to Cain’s cash, it may be thatit comes from just folks. Fully half of the money he raised through the third quarter came from small individual donations. About 40 percent came from large individual donations. In contrast, the Romney campaign got only 10 percent of its money from small donations and90 percent from large donations.
It’s clear that in terms of geography Cain’s money base is in the South. The FEC has nifty interactive maps that show the amount individual candidates get from eachstate, and Cain’s biggest haul came from his homestate of Georgia . Texas is second, and Florida third.He did respectably in California , but got very little cash from the power corridors of New York.
Money remains the engine of campaigning, and if Cain is to have any chance of actually winning primaries, as opposed to winning polls, he’s likely going to have to get much more money for ads and get-out-the-vote efforts. Maybe he can link up with comedian Stephen Colbert , who has set up his own super PAC in an effort to publicize the absurdity of current campaign finance laws.
Back in July, Colbert joked that maybe he would pick Cain as his favorite candidate and funnel him Colbert super PAC cash.
The comedian’s reason?
“When it comes to presidential candidates I look first for an easily rhymed name,” said Colbert .