Anti-War Republican Ron Paul Is Tops With Military Contributors

James Kelso Comments

Congressman Ron Paul has defined his Republican presidential candidacy with a staunchly critical stance on the Iraq war, saying during the June 5 debate in New Hampshire, for example, that it was a “mistake to go and a mistake to stay.”

Paul has often reiterated his views that US security has been worsened by its military presence in Iraq, and that Bush’s pre-emptive war doctrine represented one of his administration’s greatest moral failings.

One might think such criticism of the war and the Commander-in-Chief’s leadership would make Paul a pariah to the military community, however, the latest figures indicate the antiwar Republican is receiving more donations from employees of the US military than any other Republican candidate.

The Presidential campaigns just released their quarterly campaign finance reports, leaving much of the mainstream media remarking on Paul’s surge in online donations from his healthy Internet following, though the $2.3 million he raised still has him trailing far behind the front runners.

But a closer look at the reports reveals a less obvious but more remarkable development–the antiwar Republican received nearly one third of the money donated by employees of the US military.

Based on the July 2007 Quarterly Finance Reports to the Federal Elections Commission, Ron Paul is the most supported candidate in terms of financial support by Military Personnel and Military Veterans.

Units are contributions in dollars by employees of the respective military organizations:

Percentages:

*Note: These statistics include the contributions of employees who recorded or indicated their military branch. Contributions where no employer was specified were naturally not included.

**Edit: Ron Paul and John McCain have USMC contributions of $1,500 and $1,600 respectively which were overlooked. This doesn’t change the ranking, but does alter the percentages. I’ve added the amount to the totals for each candidate and updated the percentages accordingly. My apologies to the Marine contributors.

Compiled From: Independents Unbound & Phreadom

* Story Correction/Update: