US accountants have piled into Barack Obama’s campaign for the US presidency, with almost twice as many employees of the Big Four contributing to the Illinois senator’s campaign than to John McCain’s.

A search of campaign contribution database at OpenSecrets.org shows nearly 640 employees at the Big Four have contributed to Senator Obama’s campaign, while only 326 employees have donated to Senator McCain.

‘It’s surprising,’ said Brad Sherman, one of several certified accountants in Congress, said. ‘Of all the professions you’d expect the majority of accountants to be Republicans. Conservatism is the ideology of the profession. And accountants are disproportionately of the ethnicities and income levels that generally vote Republican.’

But the sums donated to the two candidates do not compare so dramatically, as the average contribution to McCain from employees at the big accountancy firms was larger.

Obama drew $384,657 in individual contributions from employees at the four firms. Senator McCain received about 20% less, at $309,687 in contributions.

According to OpenSecrets.org, 267 Deloitte employees gave a total of $144,664 to Obama, while 118 gave $115,051 to McCain; 128 Ernst & Young employees gave $97,175 in all to Obama, while 93 employees there gave $77,156 to McCain; at KPMG, 132 employees gave $82,458 to Obama, and 30 employees sent $22,060 to McCain.

Only at PricewaterhouseCoopers was McCain the winner in terms of dollars contributed: 85 employees there gave $95,420 to him, while Obama only received $60,360.

Yet even at PricewaterhouseCoopers, Senator Obama had a larger number of contributors: 111 employees of that firm.