Is Obama really losing the money battle? A fundraising Q&A.

Question: If Romney’s benefiting mostly from big donations from wealthy contributors, is Obama still the king of small donors?

Answer: Pretty much. It’s true that the Obama campaign has been far more successful at bringing in small donations than the Romney campaign. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, 43 percent of those donating to the Obama campaign this cycle gave $200 or less, compared with just 13 percent of those giving to the Romney campaign.

Having lots of small donors has been an advantage for Obama in the past – since the campaign can always go back to those donors for additional contributions, unlike big donors who may have maxed out. But in the new super PAC-dominated campaign, there's really no such thing as maxing out, since a donor who has given the maximum to Romney and wants to keep giving has plenty of other options for supporting the Republican nominee.

That's why it may become an increasing problem for Obama if he can't get more donations from big donors, too – as the recent spate of big Hollywood fundraisers (and the leaked conference call) attest. 

Question: Which industries are supporting which candidates? Has Wall Street abandoned Obama?

Answer: By far, the most heavily represented field donating to Romney is banking and finance, with Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Bank of America listed as the top three employers for the campaign’s contributors. Other top contributors come from the tax/accounting field (PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte), and hotel behemoth Marriott (founded by a fellow Mormon).

Obama’s top donors, on the other hand, tend to hail from the fields of technology (Microsoft and Google), higher education (the University of California, Harvard), law, and government.

But the story is somewhat different when looking at donors to the party committees. The DNC lists Goldman Sachs as its second biggest source of contributions overall – which would appear to undercut, somewhat, the narrative that Obama has alienated the financial industry with his more populist campaign rhetoric and attacks on Bain Capital. (Not surprisingly, Bain is a top source of donations to Romney).

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