The battle for the White House between Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, which has witnessed one of the most acrimonious campaigns, is also expected to be the most expensive ever with over five billion dollars estimated to be spent on the election cycle.
As much as 5.3 billions dollars is expected to be spent, an amount that is over the Gross Domestic Product of several small countries but something that neither Senator Barack Obama nor Senator John McCain and all of their colleagues in the House of Representatives and Senate even wince about for a nanosecond.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics (C.R.P.), the Presidential Race alone is expected to cost 2.4 billions dollars.
According to Sheila Krumholz, the Executive Director of the C.R.P. the Presidential candidates alone have already raised more than USD 1.5 billion since the election cycle started in January 2007.
"This is the first time that candidates for the White House have raised and spent more than USD 1 billion. This year's total is on track to nearly double candidate fundraising in 2004 and triple 2000" Krumholz said in a teleconference.
And for Congress all candidates for the House of Representatives and the Senate have raised more than USD 1.5 billion, according to data made available as at October 21.
"Weeks before Election Day the 2008 cycle has already surpassed USD 4.5 billion, USD 300 million more than the USD 4.2 billion that had been raised by the conclusion of the 2004 cycle. The overall estimated costs of the 2008 election would represent a 27 per cent increase over the 2004 cycle" Krumholz said making the point that Democrats will have collected 52 per cent more money for their congressional and presidential efforts by the end of this cycle, compared to four years ago.
But Republican fundraising growth, however, has been a meager 2 per cent since 2004.
"This election will blow through historic records on a number of counts. We've marveled for years at the cost of elections, especially during presidential cycles, but this one is the first to cross the USD 5 billion mark. At the same time, it's encouraging to see more Americans than ever participating in offsetting the traditional dominance of special interests and wealthy donors who might be expecting paybacks. The only payback... is a victory on Election Day" the top official of the C.R.P. said.
The breakdown of where the money is coming from is pretty revealing as well with those listing their occupation as "retired" accounting for at least USD 204 millions; lawyers and law firms, USD 180.9 million; the securities and investment industry, USD 122.8 million; real estate, USD 105.5 million and health professionals; USD 69.6 million.
It is said that business interests accounts for about 72 per cent of all contributions with ideological, labour and other interests making up the rest.
While lawyers remain strongly in the Democrats' camp and Wall Street favours them too, some of the other top givers, retirees, real estate and doctors and other health professionals are mostly split at this point between the two major parties.
Democrats have solid support in the number of traditionally supportive industries, of course, including the entertainment industry and among college professors and other educators. And not surprisingly Republicans count on contributions from the oil and gas, pharmaceutical and manufacturing industries.
Business wise the top corporation in 2008 is once again Goldman Sachs followed by CitiGroup at USD 4.2 millions and J. P. Morgan Chase & Company at USD 4.1 million.