Northwestern employees are doing more than wearing the red, white and blue buttons of presidential candidates and listening to debates between the contenders vying for Illinois’ open U.S. Senate seat.

More than 120 professors, administrators and staff, who listed Northwestern as their employer, are digging into their pockets, and giving hefty sums of cash to candidates running for many political offices this year.

NU employees and their immediate families gave more than $39,000 to political candidates as of November 2003, according to a report recently released by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research center in Washington, D.C.

In the higher education sector, Northwestern employees ranked 14th in giving to candidates for the 2004 election cycle. Harvard University claimed the top spot, with donations from the university’s employees totaling more than $169,000.

English Prof. Susan Manning donated to Illinois State Sen. Barack Obama — one of seven Democrats contending to be the Democrats’ U.S. Senate nominee — after meeting him at a June fundraiser. Manning said she was impressed by Obama’s strong opposition to the War in Iraq and his domestic policy proposals.

“He’s one of the most impressive political candidates I’ve met in a long time,” she said.

Twenty-eight university employees have donated $10,080 to Obama — more than any other candidate running this year. During the 2004 election cycle, Obama has received more donations from people in the higher education sector than any other congressional candidate.

Audra Wilson, deputy press and policy director for Obama’s campaign, said academics probably are more inclined to support the state senator because he also is a professor at the University of Chicago Law School.

“Many people at academic institutions will be in tune with Barack’s issues,” she said. “It’s very natural, with his record and background.”

Wilson added that university employees might approve Obama’s plans to make higher education more affordable by increasing the size of the federal Pell Grant given to high school students to pay for college.

For some NU employees, the decision to donate centered less on political ideals and more on personal ties to the candidates.

Chemistry Prof. Mark Ratner contributed to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which is devoted to electing a Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Steven LaTourette, a Republican congressman from Ohio running for reelection.

Asked about these seemingly divergent interests, Ratner said his cousin is friends with LaTourette, and asked Ratner to give money as a favor.

Ratner, who also donated to Democratic presidential candidate and Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman, said it is important to contribute money as part of civic participation.

“We need opposition,” he said. “Our country’s going in a very bad way right now.”

The Center for Responsive Politics not only releases the names and employers of contributors, but also divides donations by political affiliation. In the 2004 election cycle, money from NU employees have split, with 74 percent given to Democrats and 26 percent to Republicans.

Donald Haider, a public management professor in the Kellogg School of Management who donated $2,000 to President Bush’s reelection effort, is part of NU’s small Republican donor base.

“I’d like to see him re-elected as president,” Haider said. “He has appointed very good people to public office.”

No stranger to political fundraising. Haider was a candidate in Chicago’s 1987 mayoral race.

“If you’ve run for political office, you know how hard it is to raise money,” he said.

As candidates begin to drop from the races, individuals see that their support and money doesn’t always make a difference.

Mary Jo Crosby, associate director of NU’s Media Management Center, contributed to the presidential campaign of U.S. Rep. Richard Gephardt. Crosby, who has known the Missouri congressman since 1973, said her husband served as Gephardt’s chief of staff.

Before Gephardt, Communication ’62, decided to end his bid for the Democratic nomination after a distant fourth-place finish in the Jan. 19 Iowa caucuses, Crosby spoke highly of the politician.

“He has all the experience one needs in both foreign affairs and domestic affairs,” she said. “He could hit the ground running.”