Politics biting in larger pieces of online power

SAN FRANCISCO: Piryx.com, an online fundraising tool to integrate real-time giving into social media networks, has predicted that online political donations will reach $4 billion in this election cycle, double the pace of the 2008 election cycle when President Barak Obama’s campaign first showed the power of online fundraising to upset incumbent or favored candidatesOnline fundraising is now fueling the insurrectionist anti-incumbent political movement.

Many now high profile candidates are raising significant monetary contributions. In some cases, candidates are receiving nearly 30 donations a minute.

“Challengers across all states, races and parties are scoring unprecedented victories in 2010 fueled by a surge of cash coming in online,” said Tom Serres, founder and CEO of Piryx. “Obama, the voice for change in 2008, ushered in a new era of candidates using social media to great effect to motivate donors all over the country.”

Piryx also predicted that more than 30 million donors will make online contributions to political campaigns this election cycle. The average amount of online political contributions for 2010 campaigns is about $130. Online donations provide much greater return for campaigns because they require no postage, ornate events or even candidate travel or campaign time, Serres said.

Piryx’s analysis of online contributions shows that the most online political giving occurs in states where insurgent candidates are making strong challenges to party favorites, as well as in states where insurgent organizations have strong roots. For example, South Carolina is the third most active among states in online political giving.

Piryx Top 10 States for Political Giving 2010 are Texas, California, South Carolina, Florida, New York, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Illinois and North Carolina.