The California Intelligence Agency

international | politics / elections | other press Wednesday February 04, 2009 14:36 by C.D. Stelzer

The Obama Campaign's Biggest Contributor

It wasn't Goldman Sachs or Microsoft that topped the Obama campaign contribution list. They were numbers two and three, respectively. It was higher education, specifically the University of California system that ranked numero uno.

The sprawling UC network contributed more than $1.3 million to Obama's successful presidential bid, according to OpenSecrets.org.

But the website, which tracks political contributions, doesn't break down where the money came from within the university system. Did small donors on the faculties and staffs of the individual schools contribute the money? Perhaps a coalition of PhDs and janitors coalesced over their mutual interests. Or was it a pension fund or teacher's union affiliated with the UC system that doled out the big bucks to Obama? Can public universities themselves even donate to political campaigns?