Donors From Academe Favor Obama by a Wide Margin

Beyond politics, contributors see him as one of their own

Professors, college administrators, and other educators have donated eight times as much to Barack Obama as they have to John McCain, the widest gulf in giving to presidential candidates by academics in the past five presidential elections, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.

Through the end of last month, donors from academe had contributed just over $12.2-million to Mr. Obama, compared with just over $1.5-million to Mr. McCain, according to the center, a nonprofit research group whose data on giving to presidential candidates date to the 1992 election.

It is no surprise that the Democratic candidate for the White House has received more cash from people in higher education than the Republican, given that studies and polls have shown that faculty members and college presidents are more likely to be registered Democrats.

Mr. Obama has also broken several fund-raising records this year and has outpaced Mr. McCain in donations from all sources, with the Democrat receiving a total of $454-million and the Republican $230-million, according to the latest data available from the Center for Responsive Politics.

What is more surprising is how wide the gap is among contributions from academe, and how much it has grown. In 2000, donors from academe actually gave slightly more to George W. Bush, than they gave to Al Gore. That had changed by 2004, when educators contributed close to four times as much to John Kerry, the Democratic nominee, as to Mr. Bush. And the spread has continued to widen.

The disparity has grown at the same time the total amount of donations from academe to presidential candidates has risen rapidly. Giving has grown so much that Mr. Obama has received about the same amount from college employees in New York State alone as Bill Clinton got from college educators across the entire nation in 1992 and 1996 combined.

The 2004 presidential contest marked “the election when the college professors really became active contributors,” said Massie Ritsch, communications director at the Center for Responsive Politics. That year educators contributed a total of $10.6-million to the Democratic and Republican nominees, up from a total of $2-million in 2000. While donations from academe still represent a fraction of total giving to the presidential candidates, two universities — the University of California and Harvard University — ranked among the top five contributors over all (in terms of money given by employees) to Mr. Obama this election and to Mr. Kerry four years ago, according to the center.

Outpouring for Obama

Many donors and political scholars say Mr. Obama has become the heavy favorite among academe for two key reasons. First, many college employees are disenchanted with President Bush and the Republican administration’s record on such issues as the war in Iraq, international relations, and government surveillance of private citizens. Their dissatisfaction contributes to a desire among many educators to put a new political party in the White House.

But Mr. Obama, who taught constitutional law as a lecturer at the University of Chicago, has gained affection on college campuses in his own right, in part because he talks, and seems to think, a lot like a professor. He sees issues in shades of gray and appears to grasp policy nuances, political scholars and donors to the Democrat say.

“In many ways, this is the academic’s dream candidate,” says Matthew C. Woessner, an associate professor of public policy on Pennsylvania State University’s Harrisburg campus, who has studied the politics of the professoriate. “In a sense, he’s almost one of them.”

Mr. Obama’s financial support among academics comes from an array of employees, including faculty members from business, law, and medical schools, professors from various liberal-arts disciplines, and librarians. He received donations from dozens of college presidents — including those at Amherst College, Hampton University, and Northwest Missouri State University — as well as from some coaches, including the head men’s basketball coaches at Georgetown and Northwestern Universities and Joe Paterno, the longtime Penn State football coach.

Among the top 10 colleges in terms of donations to Mr. Obama are three where he has close ties: the University of Chicago, where he worked; Columbia University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in political science; and Harvard University, where he earned a law degree.

Many of Mr. McCain’s donations from academe came from faculty members at business, law, and medical schools. He has also received money from a handful of college presidents, including the leaders of Calvin College, Chapman University, and Newberry College, and from coaches, too. The head men’s basketball coach and head football coach at the University of Arizona, the senator’s home state, gave to Mr. McCain.

But there were few campuses where the Republican raked in more money than his Democratic challenger. Most colleges with employees who gave to both candidates, including all of those on the Republican’s top 10 list of institutions, contributed substantially more to Mr. Obama than to Mr. McCain.

The Republican has received more money from employees at some colleges — including Ave Maria University, Calvin College, and New York’s King’s College — than Mr. Obama. In those cases, though, the total amounts given to Mr. McCain were relatively small, with one or two employees of the institution contributing to the Republican and no one from the college giving to Mr. Obama.

Even in Mr. McCain’s home state of Arizona, people in academe gave more than twice as much to Mr. Obama as to the Republican. And in Alaska, where Mr. McCain’s running mate, Sarah Palin, is governor, college employees gave more than five times as much to the Democrat.

The gap is so wide that Mr. Obama got more donations from academe in California alone than Mr. McCain did from academics over all.

A ‘Sense of Urgency’

College administrators and professors who gave to Mr. Obama say the Democrat reflects many of their priorities and views. But many of them are also giving in response to their opposition to President Bush and to the anti-intellectual tone some faculty members see in Republican campaigning.

“I gave out of a sense of urgency. The country can’t go on this way,” said John A. McCumber, a professor of Germanic languages at the University of California at Los Angeles who donated $4,541 to Mr. Obama.

Professors who travel often to Europe, as he does, have seen firsthand how the United States’ international reputation has “plummeted” under President Bush, he said, damage he hopes a Democratic president can repair.

Republicans, he said, also seem to “have opted for an anti-mind strategy,” Mr. McCumber said, adding that some of them “seem to be in denial of obvious facts, such as the theory of evolution. How can you support that as an academic?”

In contrast, Mr. Obama, he says, is “someone academics feel comfortable with.” He cited the example of the Democrat’s being able to discuss the philosophy of Reinhold Niebuhr, an American theologian, with David Brooks, a New York Times columnist, who wrote last year of a detailed, off-the-cuff conversation he had had with Mr. Obama about the philosopher.

Some academics’ concerns about anti-intellectualism in the Republican Party were exacerbated by Mr. McCain’s selection of Ms. Palin as his running mate. Her stump speeches often seek to portray Mr. Obama negatively for being an elite intellectual who is out of touch with ordinary Americans and voters in small towns. The party platform adopted at the Republican convention last month also took a swipe at higher education, decrying the “leftist dogmatism that dominates” many colleges.

Carl Shapiro, a professor of business strategy at the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley, said he and his colleagues are turned off by the anti-intellectual, anti-science approach they see the Republican Party often taking.

“For those of us whose lives are about inquiry and study and evidence and thought, it’s offensive,” said Mr. Shapiro, who donated $2,300 to Mr. Obama.

Some scholars who gave to Mr. Obama said their support reflects a more fundamental desire, beyond debates over specific policies or political styles, to have someone in the job whom they trust to do it well. “Ideology doesn’t seem to be the point in this election,” Heathcote W. Wales, an associate professor of law at Georgetown University who gave $2,900 to the Democratic nominee, wrote in an e-mail message. “I think we’re all just hungry for a little competence in the White House.”

More-specific reasons have driven other donors to Mr. Obama. David W. Oxtoby, president of Pomona College, contributed $1,500 to the Democrat in part because of personal connections: He used to live in Mr. Obama’s State Senate district in Illinois, and the president’s son works for Mr. Obama’s campaign.

Mr. Oxtoby, who said he has never given to a presidential campaign before, also believes Mr. Obama would be a good president: “He’s a very smart person who has new ideas.”

When it comes to specific policies, Mr. Obama’s positions align well with the majority of faculty members’ views, said Solon J. Simmons, an assistant professor of sociology at George Mason University’s Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, who has studied the views of college instructors. The Democrat’s approaches to foreign policy and the economy, for instance, match up well with professors’ opposition to the war in Iraq and their generally moderate stances on economic policy, he said.

Mr. Woessner, the Penn State professor, said Mr. McCain’s moderate streak could appeal to some academics. (He himself supports the Republican.) But Mr. Obama’s charisma, his professional demeanor, and his policies “simply outshine” the Republican among academics over all, the professor said. Mr. Obama would also break a race barrier if he became president, Mr. Woessner said, and that is another allure for professors, who tend to hold socially progressive views.

Experience and Maturity

Mr. McCain’s moderate positions on several fronts, however, have ingratiated him with some scholars who donated to his campaign. The Republican’s supporters point to his decisions to challenge his party on such issues as campaign-finance reform, immigration, and torture.

“He’s been the only person at a national level to challenge the rest of the Republican party,” said Ralph Reisner, a lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School who voted for Mr. Kerry in 2004 and Mr. Gore in 2000. He gave $200 to Mr. McCain. “I think he would shake up that party, which badly needs to be shaken up.”

For many professors who donated to Mr. McCain, the Republican’s more than 20 years of experience in the U.S. Senate — compared with the Democrat’s, who is in his first term — was the deciding factor.

“John McCain has the experience and maturity to lead the country,” said Martin K. Sneider, an adjunct professor of marketing at Washington University in St. Louis, who donated $2,300.

Mr. Sneider said he could see what some of Mr. Obama’s academic supporters mean when they say he seems to be one of their own, but he said that characteristic doesn’t necessarily make someone a good fit for the Oval Office.

“I do see a bit of the professor in Barack,” Mr. Sneider said. “I can picture him keeping a classroom enthralled, and certainly there would be those occasions where those skills would benefit the country. But I’m not sure it would make him a better president.”

Lorraine Pangle, an associate professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin, who donated $300 to Mr. McCain, says Mr. Obama’s oratorical skills are impressive but raise concerns that he may be too much of a politician. “He’s so good at speaking, his rhetoric is so good, that the worry is it keeps people from judging his policies,” she said.

The question of intellect, though, weighed on one donor to Mr. McCain, leading him to eventually change his candidate.

Marc Trachtenberg, a professor of international relations at the University of California at Los Angeles, donated $1,000 to Mr. McCain’s campaign last winter after watching the Republican and Democratic primary debates. He was especially drawn to Mr. McCain’s foreign-policy stances and experience in comparison with the other Republican candidates.

But he disliked several decisions Mr. McCain began to make, such as his proposed gas-tax holiday and the hard line he took during the war between Russia and Georgia. The selection of Ms. Palin as his vice-presidential nominee was the final straw, and the professor’s ballot will now be cast for Mr. Obama.

“The Sarah Palin business was unbelievable,” said Mr. Trachtenberg, who describes himself as a political independent. “To choose someone who was so totally unqualified as a way of playing to the right rather than to independent voters like me says a lot about how he will choose people for his team as president.”

The professor said he still has some reservations about Mr. Obama. But “he now strikes me as the safer choice, as the more reasonable person, as someone who’s not going to pander,” Mr. Trachtenberg said. “He strikes me as more intelligent, plain and simple.”

Paul Basken contributed to this article.

CANDIDATES AND THE POCKETBOOKS OF ACADEME College administrators, faculty members, and other educators have typically (although not always) favored the Democratic presidential candidate when making political donations. Heres who employees of colleges and other educational institutions have given to in current and previous presidential elections. Democrat Republican 2008 Barack Obama, $12.2-million* John McCain, $1.5-million* 2004 John Kerry, $8.4-million George W. Bush, $2.2-million 2000 Al Gore, $983,000 George W. Bush, $1.1-million 1996 Bill Clinton, $544,000 Bob Dole, $231,000 1992 Bill Clinton, $640,000 George H.W. Bush, $147,000 * Totals for the 2008 candidates are based on Federal Election Commission data for the 2008 election cycle released electronically on September 29. SOURCE: Center for Responsive Politics

http://chronicle.com Section: Government & Politics Volume 55, Issue 9, Page A1