Posted by Jed Lewison on Fri Feb 1, 2008 at 4:27 PM Pacific

$1 billion raised so far, but just $75 million to challengers

According to the new FEC filings, Democratic and Republican candidates for federal office have raised just over $1 billion so far during this election, with a majority of the money going to Democrats.

It's nice to know that that Democrats are finally outraising Republicans, but our campaign finance system is still horribly broken.

Of the $1 billion, less than $75 million went to challengers -- and of that total, $18 million came from the candidates themselves.

Political fundraising is a booming industry. The Democratic presidential field has raised $317 million this year, up from $140 million at this point in the 2004 election and $57 million in the 2000 election.

Republicans have raised $265 million, twice as much as President Bush raised through this point in 2004.

It's important to remember what this boom means, however.

Over the $582 million raised by presidential candidates, just $127 million was raised from donations smaller than $200.

In other words, roughly 80% of all money donated to presidential campaigns came from a very small group of politically influential people.

Along with the media, people who donate large sums of money to political candidates own the political process.

It's still one person, one vote, but these are the people who decide for whom we can vote.