Campaign watchers keep an eye on donations from those with corporate affiliations. Many feel that this provides insight into which businesses expect to benefit from a given election outcome.

In this same vein, it is interesting to note the contributions of people from certain professions. TheScientist.com recently reported that James Watson, the noted biologist, supported Obama. Watson is perhaps best known as a Nobel Prize winner who co-discovered the structure of DNA. The Scientist article finds special significance in Watson’s contribution because of his statements, described in this Wikipedia entry, concerning the intelligence of Africans.

The article also mentions an interesting pattern in other scientific contributions, as follows:

Other prominent scientists making contributions in what is shaping up to be a highly charged election year include Sloan-Kettering Memorial Cancer Center president Harold Varmus (who has donated to the Obama, Richardson, and Clinton presidential campaigns in the past year) and genomics pioneer and The Scientist editorial board member Craig Venter (who donated $2,300 to the Clinton campaign last year, but most recently donated $1,000 to the Obama campaign).