The data here suggest that 1% of the 1% donors exert a conservative tug on American politics. Though we would be wise not to infer too much from correlations, especially without the benefit of over-time analysis, the results here are striking.

The parties are symmetrical in that more extreme members rely more on small donors than their moderate colleagues. But they are asymmetrical in that among Republicans, the most conservative members get more of their money from 1% of the 1% donors than their moderate colleagues, while among Democrats, the most moderate members on average get slightly more of their money from 1% of the 1% donors than their more liberal colleagues, all else being equal.

In other words, 1% of the 1% money appears to reward conservative Republicans as compared to moderate Republicans. And it may slightly reward moderate Democrats as compared to liberal Democrats.

via Are the 1% of the 1% pulling politics in a conservative direction? – Sunlight Foundation Blog.

Love the charts and graph and regression analysis and simple explanation of what regression analysis is and how it works.

You can see the real-world examples of this in the Tea Party, where most of their money comes from PAC’s that are funded by very small numbers of very wealthy conservatives.