No surprise: The super rich are floating the 2016 elections

There’s the myth of the United States: It’s a Democracy, each citizen gets a vote, and everybody’s voice counts.

And then there’s the reality: When it comes to elections, the best funded candidates have the best chance of winning, and all too often that funding comes not from the grassroots but from the coffers of the super wealthy.

According to The New York Times, nearly half of the money in the 2016 election is coming from just 158 families. Many of the families are familiar: Trump, Bush, Soros, Hunt. Others, a who’s who of the Fortune 500, are not household names.

Most of the donors are old, rich, white men. They also skew heavily Republican, and many got their money in the energy industry — both frackers and old oil billionaires alike.

There is at least one Coloradan who made the list: progressive donor Patricia Stryker, who inherited her wealth from her family’s medical supply company.

Several big-buck Colorado names are missing from the top 158 list: Coors, Polis, Gill and Anschutz. Perhaps they’ll pop up more significantly on future filings.

For a full list of these wealthy funders, go this New York Times story.

 

Photo credit: Mike Licht, Creative Commons, Flickr.