One observation I have frequently made is how many more lawyers there are active in the Democratic Party as opposed to the Republican Party. Lawyers also contribute far more money to Democrats. Keith Burgess-Jackson, the philosophy prof at UTA and himself a lawyer has noticed this also, and has done some research into this:

Law and Politics
I've been doing some research, which I would like to present to you. Since 1980 (inclusive), there have been eight presidential candidates and eight vice-presidential candidates in each major party (Republican and Democrat). How many of them were lawyers or had legal training? It may surprise you to learn that only three of the 15 Republicans (we don't yet know John McCain's running mate) had legal training. That's 20%. By contrast, 15 of the 16 Democrats had legal training. That's 93.7%.

On the Republican side, only Dan Quayle (twice a vice-presidential candidate) and Robert Dole had legal training, Quayle at Indiana University and Dole at Washburn University. Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Jack Kemp, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and John McCain did not. On the Democrat side, all of the following had legal training: Walter Mondale, Geraldine Ferraro, Michael Dukakis, Lloyd Bentsen, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Joseph Lieberman, John Kerry, John Edwards, Barack Obama, and Joseph Biden. I should point out that while Gore studied law at Vanderbilt University for two years, he did not receive a degree. The only Democrat without legal training during this time has been Jimmy Carter.

What do you make of this, if anything? Is it that Republicans are averse to lawyers or that Democrats are partial to lawyers (or both)?

Addendum: It might be said that the results are skewed by the fact that George H. W. Bush, for example, appears on the Republican side four times (twice as a vice-presidential candidate and twice as a presidential candidate), while Al Gore appears on the Democrat side three times (twice as a vice-presidential candidate and once as a presidential candidate). Then let me talk about different individuals rather than total candidates. There have been eight different Republican candidates since 1980. Only two of them (Quayle and Dole) had legal training. That's 25%. There have been 12 different Democrat candidates since 1980. Eleven of them (all but Carter) had legal training. That's 91.6%. There's still a serious disparity. Is it a coincidence? If not, what's the causal connection?

For some reason, it had never registered with me that Bob Dole was a lawyer. He seemed like a good guy, but was not exciting as a presidential candidate. I try to not vote for lawyers for important elective office. I would like to see Supreme Court Justices who are not lawyers.