The largest donors to the joint fundraising committees that John McCain and Barack Obama have used in tandem with their national and state party committees include individuals who work for Wall Street firms, legal powerhouses, high-tech companies and health-care interests. "Donors to these joint fundraising committees, or JFCs, are among the biggest fish in political fundraising" says the Center for Responsive Politics, which has new data on its Web site.

Three Democratic JFCs pulled in $183.7 million through September while ten Republican committees collected $176.7 million during the period, according to the center. Among the top givers to the GOP committees are people associated with JPMorgan Chase, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Morgan Stanley. The top Democratic givers are affiliated with, among others, Goldman Sachs, Time Warner and Citigroup.

The lion's share of the funds pulled in by the joint fundraising committees are allocated to the national party committees for ads and get out the vote efforts to benefit their presidential candidate and other candidates on their tickets.

                                                                                                           -- Peter H. Stone