Laufer

For its part, the Democratic National Committee has reported raising only $3.5 million in these special donations. It lists 165 contributions to the convention account, with only seven coming in at $100,000 or more. Thus far, only <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/summ.php?cycle=2016&disp=D&type=V">Henry and Marsha Laufer</a> have given the maximum in both 2015 and 2016.

Laufer is on the board of <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/summary.php?id=D000022219">Renaissance Technologies</a>, a N.Y. hedge fund; previously he was the firm’s research director. The couple has contributed more than $2.5 million to Democratic organizations thus far in the 2016 cycle.

<a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/bigpicture/topindivs.php?cycle=2016">James Simons</a>, Renaissance’s founder, is one of three others who have given $100,000 or more to the Democratic convention effort; the others are <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/races/summary.php?cycle=2016&id=MD08">David Trone</a>, the co-founder of Total Wine & More who was a Maryland congressional candidate until losing in the primary this week, and longtime Democratic donor <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/summ.php?cycle=2016&disp=D&type=V">Fred Eychaner</a>, a Chicago publisher and radio station owner. So far, at least, Renaissance Technologies would seem to have qualified for naming rights to the Democratic convention this summer in Philadelphia.

The new convention accounts represent just one more example of the dramatic increase in concentration of federal campaign funding among a very small group of donors. In 2012, the grants to the two parties represented ‘contributions’ from more than twelve million U.S. taxpayers who voluntarily participated in the funding program. This year so far, fewer than 500 people have accounted for the direct party funding of these efforts, and while much more will be received before the gavels fall in Cleveland and Philadelphia, the concentration of funding is unlikely to change significantly.