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U.S. Politics
Antiwar Ron Paul Rakes in Military Donations?
Quarterly Reports Indicate Paul Raised More From Military Than Other Republicans
Posted 11 hr. 54 min. ago
Gabriel Buoys/AFP/Getty
Simi Valley, UNITED STATES: Arizona Senator John McCain (L), Rep. Ron Paul of Texas and Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) participate in the first GOP Candidates's debate of the 2008 Presidential Race, at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi



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 50% of the money donated by employees of the US military.
The site that crunched the numbers on the quarterly reports did not count donations coming from the US Marine Corps, which adds $1600 to the total of $15,825 total they report McCain raised from employees of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Veterans Administration. That failure slightly alters the conclusions they draw on the totals, since Paul received no money from Marines. Even so, the overall percentages indicate that the underdog candidate, whose overall fund raising cache is dwarfed by the leading pack of candidates, has appealed to segments of the military community.


Units are contributions in dollars by employees of the respective military organizations.
Source: Finance Reports for the 2007 July Quarterly.

NAME	TOTAL	[ARMY]	[NAVY]	[AIRFORCE]	[VETERAN]
RON PAUL	23,465	[6,975]	[6,765]	[4,650]	[5,075]
MCCAIN	15,825	[6925]	[6305]	[1795]	[800]
ROMNEY	3,551	[2,051]	[0]	[1500]	[0]
RUDY	2,320	[1,450]	[370]	[250]	[250]
HUNTER	1000	[0]	[1000]	[0]	[0]
HUCKABEE	750	[250]	[0]	[500]	[0]
TANCREDO	350	[350]	[0]	[0]	[0]
BROWNBACK	71	[71]	[0]	[0]	[0]
THOMPSON	0	[0]	[0]	[0]	[0]

Percentages:
52.53% Ron Paul
35.4% McCain
7.9% Romney
5.2% Giuliani
2.2% Hunter
2.6% Others