While the media focuses on the influence of political donations coming out of industries like oil and pharmaceuticals, there’s a new powerhouse in town that, for some reason, isn’t getting nearly as much attention:

Professors and others in the education field have given more to federal candidates running in 2008 than those who work in the oil, pharmaceutical, and computer industries — a sign of how academia has become a much bigger player in the political cash sweepstakes.

Of the more than $7 million that academics donated in the first half of this year, more than $4.1 million went to presidential campaigns, particularly Barack Obama’s, according to a study released this month by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. The Illinois senator brought in almost $1.5 million, while Hillary Clinton received nearly $940,000.

Republican Mitt Romney was in third place, with about $448,000, but overall, three-quarters of contributions went to Democrats.

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The clout of academic money in presidential and congressional races has grown dramatically in recent years, according to the center’s analysis of Federal Election Commission data.

Education ranked 34th among industries in terms of employee contributions in 1996 with a total of about $8.8 million, but nearly doubled to $16.5 million in the 2000 election and more than doubled again to $37 million in 2004, when it ranked eighth among all industries.

For the 2008 campaign so far, education ranks 14th. Among the industries whose employees have given more are law, medicine, Wall Street, and real estate.

Analysts say the donations in this presidential election cycle are largely due to widespread opposition to the Bush administration and the Iraq war.

“It has really been surprising to us the extent to which the education industry has started kicking into presidential politics,” said Massie Ritsch, spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics. “It’s not a group you would normally think would have a lot of money to kick around $1,000 contributions. The motivation seems to be that they want a Democrat in the White House, and they want to keep a Democratic Congress.”