Campaign funding questions. Where can I get answers?

[Ready4Change]

I was discussing campaign finances, and it occurred to me that a viewpoint I've held for the last decade or so is that money from corporations far outweighs money from individual donors, so corporations get more support from elected officials. However, I don't know this as a FACT, and I've no idea, if it is a fact, by how much corporate donations outweigh private donations.

So, my questions: Is my impression correct? If so, by how much do corps outsepnd private donors? And is there anyplace I get get more detailed numbers?

Thanks.

[Zan_of_Texas]

1. here are some places to explore

Open secrets is worth a nice wandering around -- a number of ways to slice and dice the data http://www.opensecrets.org

http://www.politicalmoneyline.com/

Search by zip code for donations: http://www.fundrace.org/neighbors.php?type=loc&addr=&zip=22201&search=Search+by+Location

http://www.cspan.org/congress/campaignfinance.asp

Center for Public Integrity often has relevant articles on campaign finance, plus they've put out a whole book.
http://www.publicintegrity.org/

Great stats on national priorities
http://www.natprior.org/

[Ready4Change]

2. Thanks for the info!

It's either eye opening for me, or I need further understanding.

When these sites talk of individual contributions to candidates, is that only contributions from people? Or does that include contributions from corporations?

The reason I ask is that I'd heard that corporations make huge contributions. But there are no "corporate" contibutions categories. If, say, AT&T were to make a donation to Joe Randoms presidential bid, would that be listed as an individual contribution?

I feel like I'm missing something, some basic understanding?