Households Divided By Campaign Donations

Husbands and wives may share checking accounts, but they don’t always share political preferences. So what happens when one-half of the marriage wants to donate to a candidate?

A wife writes a $1,000 check to her preferred candidate, President Obama. A week later, her irritated spouse fires back with a $1,000 check to Republican Mitt Romney. The money cancels out, leaving the candidates even, television stations and campaign consultants a little bit richer — and the couple quite a bit poorer.

When politics meet family, emotion often trumps reason.

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