Academia a big campaign donor

NEW HAVEN, Conn., March 30 (UPI) -- University and college professors are doling out big political contributions to the U.S. presidential hopefuls, a campaign finance watchdog says.

The Hartford (Conn.) Courant reported Sunday that according to the Center for Responsive Politics, academia has donated $18 million this presidential election cycle.

Contributions by professors and others in education total more than contributions made by lobbying and oil and gas industries, but less than donations from Hollywood, the newspaper reported.

At Yale, for example, employees have donated $191,000, only a third as much as Harvard but enough to make Yale the eighth-largest political donor in the education field.

Democratic Presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois has raked in three times as much from academia as his rival ,Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, the newspaper said.

Massie Ritsch, a spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics, said President George Bush has been the motivating factor for those in the education field to write campaign checks this election.

"Generally, Bush has been a big motivator," he said "They really wanted him out of the White House in 2004 and they really want a Democrat to replace him in 2008."