Small donors play huge role

In little installments, they fuel Obama, Clinton campaigns

Unlike her neighbor, Barry Manilow, Edith Allen does not sell out the Las Vegas Hilton, make women's hearts flutter, or have the money to give $2,300 to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign, as Manilow did last year.

But it is Allen, a 65-year-old retired schoolteacher in Palm Springs, Calif., who represents the more powerful political force for Clinton and her primary rival, Senator Barack Obama, as the two Democrats battle for the nomination and look ahead to November. In small installments, Allen has given Clinton $365 through February, and plans to give again before the pivotal Pennsylvania primary April 22.

"I help as much as I can - 100 there, 15 there, 10 there," said Allen, who has never before donated to a politician. "It's a big deal for me."

Allen exemplifies the "small donor" phenomenon that has reshaped the political landscape this election cycle, as hundreds of thousands of voters - many of them newcomers to politics - invest themselves in the presidential campaign like never before. Lured in part by e-mails that seem to come from the candidates themselves, low-dollar donors develop relationships with the campaigns, compelling them to give more and more money.

Obama and Clinton have aggressively cultivated these armies of supporters, turning to them again and again in times of need. But while small donors are fundamental to both campaigns, they are the backbone of Obama's candidacy - the reason he has shattered fund-raising records and outraised Clinton and the Republican candidates.

Obama's fund-raising success presents him with a quandary, however. He said last year that he intended to take public financing if he won the nomination. But that would mean giving up the right to raise general-election money from supporters, a huge sacrifice for a candidate who has proved he can raise tens of millions of dollars from small donors alone.

"We have created a parallel public financing system where the American people decide if they want to support a campaign, they can get on the Internet and finance it," Obama told supporters at a campaign fund-raiser Tuesday night in Washington.

"And they will have as much access and influence over the course and direction of our campaign that has traditionally [been] reserved for the wealthy and the powerful."

These small donors are not the executives, bankers, and lawyers who typically give the maximum allowable amount per election to presidential hopefuls. They are retirees, teachers, church organists, priests, and firefighters. They are young and old, and they share a conviction that the future of their country is at stake.

Some wait for payday, Social Security, or pension checks before sending another $10 or $25, often over the Internet. Many have given five or 10 times and plan to keep giving. And they are more than just funders - many go on to volunteer as door-knockers and recruiters for their candidates.

Barbara Bird, a 60-year-old librarian in Hingham who had given $253 to Obama through February, recalled seeing Obama tout his low-dollar donors on TV recently.

"I was yelling to the TV, 'That's me! That's me!' " Bird said. "You just feel that if you can just keep it going, then hopefully people are going to start thinking right and do the right thing and be smart and vote for him."

For Democrats, the accumulated power of such small donors is growing.

Through February, Clinton and Obama had raised a combined $109.4 million in primary funds from contributors giving $200 or less, according to The Campaign Finance Institute, a nonpartisan Washington research center.

Obama raised $76.3 million to Clinton's $33.1 million. And both candidates are relying more on small donors as the primary campaign goes on.

The presumptive Republican nominee, Senator John McCain of Arizona, is relying far less on low-dollar donors than either Democrat.

"The character of the Democratic nomination race has empowered voters," said Anthony Corrado, a specialist on campaign finance at Colby College. "That's given voters a stake in these campaigns and encouraged them to contribute."

Small donors began playing a greater part in presidential fund-raising after the 2002 campaign finance reform, which imposed new limits on what donors could contribute.

The new rules, combined with political campaigns' mastery of the Internet as a fund-raising tool, have led to a spike in low-level giving, allowing candidates to spend less time headlining fund-raising receptions and more time engaging voters.

In the 2004 race, President Bush and Senator John F. Kerry each raised about $80 million from donors giving $200 or less. But up to this point in the 2008 race, small donors have given far more to Democrats.

Susan James, a 56-year-old out-of-work accountant in Phoenix, had never made a campaign contribution before giving to Clinton, whom she respects for competing in a "man's world."

James gave the New York senator $230 in chunks through February, and, like many small donors, said she now feels invested in Clinton's candidacy.

"You do feel a sense of ownership in the campaign when you see the clips of Hillary on TV, or you see the clips of the ads," said James, who also signed up to call voters on Clinton's behalf. "Even though it's a small part, you can say, 'I'm playing a part.' I've never felt this connected."

Brad Agar, a 30-year-old restaurant manager from Kent, Ohio, feels invested in Obama, to whom he had given $208 through February.

"Those little donations add up to a big thing, and that's what I feel politics is about - millions of people coming together to do something big," he said.

Many donors say they never imagined being this involved in a presidential campaign.

"I've shunned it. I've been kind of repelled by it," said Mortimer Barron, a church organist and musician in Providence who has used his credit card to give more than $1,000 to Obama. "He's attracted a lot of people who have never been active, because we see the incredible things he's doing."

Because these donors have not reached the maximum contribution limit, the campaigns can hit them up over and over.

Indeed, many low-dollar contributors say they often send donations in response to e-mail pleas from the campaigns, or when they sense from the news that their candidate needs a boost. (Obama's best fund-raising period in January was the day after he unexpectedly lost the Jan. 8 New Hampshire primary.)

For Allen, the former schoolteacher in Palm Springs, it is Obama's fund-raising advantage over Clinton - and thus his ability to blanket Pennsylvania with TV ads - that is prompting her to "dig up" some more money to help the New York senator.

"I probably won't reach the maximum, but I might," Allen said. "It depends on how long this thing drags out."

Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com