Rise in Online Fundraising Changed Face of Campaign Donors

A third, 34 percent, of all Bush contributors strongly agreed that "taxes should be cut even if it means reducing public services," and only 1 percent strongly disagreed. Conversely, only 1 percent of all Kerry backers strongly agreed, compared with 62 percent who strongly disagreed.

Similarly, the ratios of those who strongly agree to those who strongly disagree that "government should enact laws to restrict gay marriage" was 46 to 5 among all Bush donors and 2 to 73 among all Kerry contributors.

Because there is not a major ideological difference between all large and small donors, the authors of the study concluded that the "increasing numbers of small donors are not a polarizing influence."

Graf and his three co-authors -- Grant Reeher of Syracuse University, Campaign Finance Institute Director Michael Malbin and Yale post-doctoral fellow Costas Panagopoulos -- said the trends in 2004 are beneficial to the political system, further democratizing the elite-dominated world of campaign finance.

They wrote: "The Internet has helped level the playing field between large donors and small donors. Online political activism diminishes the tremendous fundraising advantage enjoyed by long-term, large donors who move in social circles of donors close to the campaign and lobby on behalf of their candidate. The Internet has helped small, less experienced donors broaden their reach, and hence their influence with others."

The study also found that a quarter of all donors said they attended a political house party, which the authors described as "evidence of the surge in grass-roots organizing."

Graf stressed that the democratization trends should not be overemphasized because donors "are much wealthier and better educated than the general public. Small donors are, too, but they are closer to average Americans. So as we have added small donors, we have made the donor pool a little more reflective of the electorate."

In addition, Graf cautioned that in 2004 the electorate was highly motivated, and "it really remains to be seen whether they [and the new donors] come back in 2008."