This week's High Country News has an interesting piece covering political donations for the 2008 presidential election in Western states.
The states include WA, OR, ID, MT, WY, CA, NV UT, CO, AZ, and NM.
Overall, Romney has received the most in the West - $12.56 million, followed by Obama ($10.68 mil), Clinton ($10.28 mil), McCain ($6.46 mil), Richardson ($6.40 mil), Giuliani ($5.71 mil), Edwards ($4.56 mil), Dodd ($690 k), Biden ($540 k), and Paul ($470 k).
States with a majority of dollars raised for Democratic candidates include Washington, California, New Mexico, and Colorado. Montana and Oregon were pretty even, while NV, ID, UT, and AZ gave the majority to Republican candidates.
The behemoth in terms of fundraising has of course been California ($36.9 mil total donated), where Clinton and Obama have each raised between 8 and 9 million, followed by Romney, Giuliani, and then McCain.
Some findings were predictable - for example, Romney leading in Utah by a long shot (as well as in Oregon, Wyoming, and Idaho), McCain was ahead in Arizona, and Richardson way out ahead in New Mexico. However, there were some other, perhaps less predictable, interesting results:
- In Nevada, Giuliani leads with $586k, apparently from the hospitality, gaming and real estate industries. Romney was close on his heels. Nevada was the only Western state where Giuliani had more contributions than any other candidate.
- Obama was in the lead in Montana, Washington, and Colorado. Montana had only $115,011 in donations, but $30,000 of that went to Obama. Ron Paul was in 3rd place in Montana (after Romney). In Colorado, Obama was way out ahead (almost a million raised, vs. less than $500,000 for the second greatest, Romney).
- Edwards was a strong 2nd place finisher in Oregon. The only othe rplace where he came in second was in New Mexico, where Richardson outpaced him $4.2 million to $68,000.
Find out who's receiving funding in your area at Open Secrets.