Costliest Election Ever: $1B for Each Camp

By the time Election Day rolls around, both President Obama and Mitt Romney will have raised more than $1 billion—making this presidential race the costliest ever seen. Yesterday's financial disclosures reveal that as of Oct. 17, Obama and the Dems had raised $1.06 billion since the start of last year, while Romney and the GOP had raised $954 million, the New York Times reports. (The figures don't include super PAC cash.) But the campaigns' paths to those sums were very different. Through September, some 55% of Obama's campaign cash consists of donations smaller than $200, while only 13% of his donations were of the maximum $2,500.

For Romney, 45% of donations were at the $2,500 mark, compared to 22% that were less than $200. The sources of the candidates' funds showed a marked contrast as well: Wall Street workers gave more to Romney than to any other recent candidate, while Obama pulled in Silicon Valley cash. Retirees are both campaigns' biggest single source of cash, and they've given Obama much more than they did in 2008. Women's groups, hospitals, retailers, and nursing homes have also boosted their donations to Obama, while insurers, doctors, and law firms have stepped back compared to 2008. (More Election 2012 stories.)