Handful give lots of $$

In the 1932 movie "If I Had a Million," comedian W.C. Fields uses $1 million he inherits to buy countless cars to crash into any vehicles that cut him off while driving.

Utahns Patrick and Jack Byrne, the president and chairman of Overstock.com, did a political version of that recently. They combined to spend $1 million on ads designed to help crash John Edwards' vice presidential campaign two years ago.

They did not respond to inquiries about exactly why they did that. But it helped make Patrick Byrne the top individual political donor in the state (giving at least $676,500 since 2003), and make Jack Byrne No. 3 (with $510,800.)

They are among a relative handful of Utahns who supply a huge share of the state's political donations. Politicians have long complained that raising money here is difficult because most residents prefer to give any extra funds available to churches and charities, not politics.

In fact, Patrick Byrne by himself managed to supply about $1 of every $20 given by Utah individuals to candidates or political groups, according to a Deseret Morning News analysis of federal and state campaign disclosure data from 2003 to now.

The Top 10 political donors gave about 21 cents of every $1 raised from individual Utahns. The Top 100 donors gave about 42 cents of every $1 raised — meaning those few nearly equaled the total given by all of Utah's other 2.5 million residents combined.

That gives those few big donors extra political influence — which some of them acknowledge. It helps their businesses, promotes their personal agendas or even wins elections for friends or family — or greases big political appointments.

"Does giving enhance my influence? Politicians always listen to people from whom they want money. That does not necessarily mean they do whatever that donor asks. That is why I insist on knowing their position on this issue (gay rights) before I give them anything," says Bruce Bastian, the state's No. 2 donor.

Related content Deseret Morning News Utah's top 100 individual political donors