In light of last night’s off-year elections, it seems an appropriate time to zoom back to the Halcyon days of the 2008 election cycle. Remember all that excitement during the campaign? All the hope? All the classic Sarah Palin videos? When John McCain said, “The fundamentals of the economy are sound?”

Ah, good times.

Anyway, I got to feeling curious about which of our fine professors and administrators decided to put their money where their mouth was and donated money to the Presidential candidates in the 2008 cycle. The results are pretty epic.

Using the Huffington Post’s FundRace tool, which aggregates the Federal Election Committee’s list of $200+ donations to single Presidential candidates, I searched for those people listing either “New York University” or “NYU” as their employer.

Of 312 donors (giving at least $200), 306 of them gave to Democratic candidates. That means that only 1.9% of the donors gave to Republicans. Donor list after the jump.

In monetary terms, NYU employees gave $266,710 to Democrats and $5,052 to Republicans. John McCain received only 4 donations totaling $1,830. Rudy Giuliani received 1 for $2,300. The last $922 went to Ron Paul. Talk about an enthusiasm gap.

Here are some notable donors:

Top Donor – Susan Anderson, Professor of Psychology – $5,600 to Hillary Clinton

Peter Unger, Professor of Philosophy – $4,600 to Barack Obama

Cheryl Mills, Senior VP and Secretary – $2,300 to Hillary Clinton (she served as Deputy Counsel to President Bill Clinton)

Mark Gertler, Professor of Economics – $520 to Barack Obama (previously interviewed on NYU Local)

Alicia Hurley, Vice President for Government and Community Engagement – $2,050 to Hillary Clinton, $350 to John Edwards

Paule Marshall, Professor of English and Author – $4,500 to Barack Obama

Thomas Cooley, Dean of Stern – $250 to Barack Obama

Lynne Brown, Senior Vice President for University Relations and Public Affairs – $500 to John Edwards and $500 to Hillary Clinton

Diane Ravitch, Research Professor of Education & Former US Assistant Secretary of Education – $500 to Hillary Clinton

Keep in mind that this is a loose analysis. Some of those listed were students. Nobody who donated under $200 is listed. But you get the idea.

Photo from Folioart: Jonathan Milne.