Report: U.S. military gives more to Obama

WASHINGTON, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- U.S. troops abroad are donating six times as much to Barack Obama's presidential campaign as they are to Republican John McCain, a study found.

The non-partisan, non-profit Center for Responsive Politics in Washington analyzed campaign donation figures and reported Thursday it had found that in 2008, U.S. troops deployed overseas at the time of their contributions had given a total of more than $60,000 to the campaign of Obama, the likely Democratic nominee, and had contributed more than $10,000 to the campaign of McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee.

The center said that while Obama had received 57 percent of all contributions to presidential candidates this year, U.S. troops generally favored Republicans, with 59 percent of their federal contributions going to GOP candidates during the current election cycle.

Obama leads McCain in campaign donations from members of the Army, Navy and Air Force, but McCain has received more campaign money than Obama from Marines, the report said.

Aaron Belkin, a professor of political science at the University of California who studies the military, told the Center for Responsive Politics the report was "shocking."

He said it represents "a tremendous shift from 2000, when the military vote almost certainly was decisive in Florida and elsewhere, and leaned heavily towards the Republicans."