If Boston College chose America's commander-in-chief, George Bush would have won the 2000 election in a nail-biter, - over Bill Bradley - John Kerry would have won with 91 percent of the 2004 vote, and Barack Obama would coast into the White House a year from now.
At least that's what the latest campaign filings from the Federal Election Committee tell us.
Every three months, the FEC releases a report listing the donations made to presidential, congressional, and other federal campaigns. Any donation over $250 is listed for the public - and plenty of donations have come from the Heights.
In 2004, those donations went in one direction. Everyone from then-track coach David Counts to Executive Vice President Pat Keating contributed to a total of over $20,000 in donations to Kerry, while that election's victor got exactly $2,000 from BC and that donation came from a single undergrad.
This year Barack Obama leads the way in BC donations, followed surprisingly by Chris Dodd, who sits at a lowly eighth in fundraising nationally. BC Law professor Scott Fitzgibbon wasted $2,300 on recent campaign dropout Sam Brownback, but it's doubtful he minds: Fitzgibbon has donated a mind-boggling $89,010 to federal campaigns since 1997, almost $20,000 more than Warren Buffett. Of the 15 contributors who listed BC as their employer this year, six are undergraduate professors, four teach at the law school, four are administrators at various levels, and one is a graduate student.
It's clear that BC isn't going to be a decisive monetary battleground for the candidates - let alone an electoral one situated in this bluest of states. BC's financial influence sits somewhere in the middle, well above the paltry $1,200 donated from Notre Dame to this year's crop of presidential candidates, but far less than the mind-boggling amount our Ivy-hued Cambridge neighbors has given thus far: $304,100.
But BC's numbers get more interesting, and more influential, when you take a look at the donations made by our very own aristocracy: the Board of Trustees.
Of the 37 Trustees who didn't have to take the Jesuits' pesky vow of poverty, 22 have already picked sides in this year's election. The trustees seem to be regionally loyal, with Connecticut's Dodd and Massachusetts' Mitt Romney leading the way, while national fundraising leader Hillary Clinton has snagged a lone $250 donation. In perhaps a sign of the democratic times, the trustees have already given more than they did during the entire 2004 campaign.
But some of the trustees seem to have mixed loyalties. Peter Bell, BC '86, and partner at Highland Capital Partners, has given the maximum donation to both Obama the Democrat and Romney the Republican. Robert Kraft has given to both Romney and John McCain under the auspices of his Kraft Group, but in 1998 he listed himself as owner of the New England Patriots and gave a whopping $15,000 to the Democratic National Committee.
And then there's Patrick Stokes, BC Trustee and CEO of Anheuser-Busch, who gave $2,000 to the Senate campaign of, wait for it, Pete Coors. Who knew the King of Beers was so democratic?
The idea that money votes is nothing new, and members of the BC community are slowly starting to do their voting in $250 increments. But it's a small, elite crop that donates to campaigns - and few of that crop are students.
So are students powerless in this equation? Not necessarily. Nearly all of the major campaigns (even Ron Paul's) have student representatives on campus. Six students in the McCain campaign paid their own way up to New Hampshire to canvass for the candidate earlier this month. The Obama campaign already has a massive Facebook group, 20 to 30 active members according to the campaign, and plans for New Hampshire sojourns of its own. Nearly every campaign plans a trip up north at some point.
Only two BC undergraduates have given to a presidential candidate in the past two elections. So until you land that investment banking gig, old-fashioned doorbell ringing and new-fangled Facebook friending will be the electoral battleground for most undergrads.
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