WOW!! Military shifting donations to Democrats

[cali]

As the Iraq war drags on and US casualties mount, members of the military appear to be showing their discontent by donating more to Democrats, a campaign finance watchdog group said today.

Service members have traditionally supported the Republican Party, but there has been a dramatic shift since the war started in 2003 away from financial backing for GOP candidates for president and Congress, the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics said.

So far this year and in the 2004 election, about 40 percent of contributions from donors identifiable as military members has gone to Democrats, compared to about one fourth in the 2000 and 2002 cycles, the center's study said. Service members gave about $1.8 million in the 2004 cycle and about $330,000 this year, the study said.

Democrat Barack Obama, who is calling for a troop withdrawal to start immediately, has received the most of any presidential candidate from uniformed service members -- about $27,000
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/politicalintelligence/2007/09/military_shifti.html

Man, does this speak loudly.

[appleannie1]

1. My high ranking son-in-law, a very conservative Repub

told me recently that in his opinion Cheney is the most evil man on the planet. He has always been a registered Republican and tried to talk me into voting for Bush in 2000 saying that only the Republican party supports the military. He now thinks the exact opposit and because of his position knows just how bad off the military really is.

[stanwyck]

15. My retired Navy admiral brother-in-law

thinks Bush is the worst president ever. He's now taking part in "Taking the Hill". Military personnel dedicated to having veterans elected to Congress. And the people they support are over-whelmingly Democrats.

[SIMPLYB1980]

2. To the greatest page with you!

:patriot:

[opihimoimoi]

3. A Logical response to Ineptness and Obstinance.....

[acmavm]

4. Now let's hope Nancy and the other dems get the hint and

don't go giving blivet another blank check with no strings attached.

[cali]

5. Indeed.

If they do that, they're really screwing ALL of us.

[seafan]

6. Maybe it's the main reason we never saw reports on how the military voted in 2004.

Military shifting donations to Democrats, September 13, 2007


Soon, all Bu$hCo will have are their leather chairs and remote-controlled war toys.

It's past time to send in the US Marshals for these people. ALL of them.


Our national security is in jeopardy.

[underpants]

9. Have we ever gotten a reasonable report on that?

Didn't the Pentagon count them and then report to each state?

[seafan]

13. I never saw anything.... but there were articles like this one in the Guardian

that were very disturbing.

Suppressing the overseas vote, October 25, 2004

Susan Dzieduszycka-Suinat is pumped. Two weeks ago, sitting in an internet cafe on Munich's Odeonplatz, the software marketer who crafted a hugely successful voter registration website, pulls up numbers that show a remarkable spike in Americans overseas mobilising to defeat George W Bush. Between her site and another out of Hong Kong, Democrats have registered 140,000 new voters, 40% of them from swing states - and that is just the tip of the iceberg. Americans abroad, roused to a boiling fury by a Bush doctrine that has smeared America's good name across the globe, are looking like the "silent swing vote" in several key battleground states. Overseas registration for both parties is up by 400% over 2000; estimates put the tally of possible civilian votes as high as 2 million.

Then the panicked emails start flooding in. Today, less than two weeks before the tightest presidential race in memory, untold thousands of overseas voters still have not received their ballots - and clearly won't be able to get them back in time. Late primaries and legal challenges to Ralph Nader's appearance on the ballot delayed mailings from half the battleground states. In swing states, including Florida, Ohio and New Mexico, different versions of the ballot have gone out, sowing wild confusion. In Pennsylvania alone, at least three versions were mailed overseas, in successive, chaotic waves - with Nader and without him, plus a blank one-size-fits-all ballot with no names at all.

Activists now fear that huge numbers of Americans overseas - both military and civilian - may be as disenfranchised as they were in 2000, when anywhere from 10 to 40% of overseas ballots, depending on the county, just plain never showed up. But, far from helping civilians, the Federal Voting Assistance Programme (FVAP) has dragged its feet. A small liaison office based in the Pentagon, the FVAP provides voting materials to the departments of defence and state for soldiers and civilians abroad, and preaches overseas election law to thousands of local election officials back home.

The Government Accountability Office excoriated the agency for losing thousands of overseas votes in 2000, but the FVAP insists it has corrected its problems this year. Frustrated civilian advocates, however, say the FVAP remains biased and ineffective. Despite reforms, they attest, it still has not shaken its Pentagon roots: It spends the bulk of its energy getting out a heavily Republican vote among half a million service people - but has failed the far greater numbers of civilians (an estimated 4 million, by most counts) who tend to vote a different way.

.....

CNN Exit Polls, 2004


Of the 18% who said they were/had been in the US Military:

57% voted for Bush
41% voted for Kerry


From what I've read, Kerry's numbers of military voters were much higher than Gore's were in 2000.

[stanwyck]

16. I really resent

the kneejerk decision that all of the military is Republican. My son is a liberal Marine. Yes, they exist. And people too often think he must be a conservative because he's a Marine and that my husband and I must be conservative because our son is a Marine.
And watch out for this younger generation of military voters. They're not your father's military voters. And the Republicans are behind the curve in realizing this.

[ryanus]

7. they are tired of fighting, want it to stop

[Squatch]

8. Just a point of clarification

The military, as an entity, is not shifting donations to Democrats. Rather, members of the military are starting to donate to Democrats in increasing numbers with their own, personal funds.

(I'm a comptroller, so your OP subject line made me sit up and say Whaaaaat?)

[cali]

11. It's not my subject line. Sorry I didn't make that clear

I mean the "wow" is mine, but the rest is from the Globe.

[The Backlash Cometh]

10. They're coming home.

[BornagainDUer]

17. Yep, they know what's good for them.

[EVDebs]

12. Edwards will counter Bush tonight on MSNBC !

[porphyrian]

14. Maybe Congress will listen to their fucking money. -n/t