Chris Dodd: How much did Wall Street give him?
Perhaps no senator had his name tied so closely to Wall Street as Chris Dodd (D) of Connecticut. When Senator Dodd dropped out of his 2010 Senate race Wednesday, he paid the price for those ties.
Over his 30-year Senate career, Dodd's campaigns were bolstered by big sums of Wall Street cash. So how much did Dodd get from Wall Street, exactly?
Since 1989, 36 of Dodd's top 50 donors have been Wall Street investment firms or insurance companies, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics. They gave almost $5 million in donations over that period – about two-thirds of the amount he collected from his top 50 donors.
Among Dodd's Top 5 contributors over that span were collapsed financial firm Bear Stearns (third with $347,350) and troubled insurance giant AIG (fourth at $285,238).
Members of the Senate's powerful banking committee typically get lots of Wall Street cash. Even by those standards, however, Dodd, as committee chairman, beat them all. Only Sen. Charles Schumer (D) of New York, who obtained $4.4 million from Wall Street sources over that period, comes close.
Ranking minority member Richard Shelby (R) of Alabama totaled over $738,000 among his top 50 donors for 25 percent of his donations among this group. Sen. Bob Corker (R) of Tennessee accumulated $147,650 from five Wall Street sources, taking more from Ruby Tuesday ($22,000) than from Citigroup ($19,750).
Dodd rose to prominence on cash from the financial services industry. When it crashed, so did he.
