Yesterday I shared a ride to a distant meeting with a Republican (but not rabid) colleague. We got to talking election reform and I ventured the thought that the existence of the web and blogs had dramatically increased the number of people contributing to election campaigns. She said, "oh no, there are data that show that the same people are contributing now as ever. It's just a little easier to give online."

She's clearly wrong in my case. Before 2002, I rarely contributed to campaigns even though I have been voting since 1962. Since 2002, I have given to a great many campaigns and organizations both local and national. Since one observation does not a statistic make, I set out to see if longitudinal data are available on the number of individual campaign contributions pre and post blogs and the web. Nothing popped out, even on dKosopedia.