The other day I talked about why I made a political donation. I wanted to talk a little bit more about the power of political donors. There’s a guy in Houston named Bob Perry, who’s very very rich, and spends a lot of his money on political causes. Go ahead and Google his name — you won’t easily find anything about the Bob Perry I’m talking about. (He’s blessed with a very common name.) He’s a huge Republican donor, has supported George W Bush since he originally ran for governor of Texas in 1994, and has pumped $200,000 into the coffers of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. That $200,000 could easily be the deciding factor in this Presidential election. And his money is everywhere. Awhile back I talked about how a friend of mine lost in the primary for a judgeship in Houston — Perry was one of his donors as well, he really spreads it around. I have no desire to use one dime for evil, whereas obviously Mr. Perry has no such compunctions, but I am interested in learning more about how money plays a role in politics first hand. Perhaps I should set up a DropCash account and solicit a few million in donations so we can run a real experiment …