Candidates Campaign Contributions

It’s New Hampshire Primary Day! Mitt Romney is maintaining his decent lead in the polls but it looks like Jon Huntsman, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul may be competing for second. I’ve been thinking about the GOP candidates, and in trying to discern who the best person is for the job, I wanted to know what kind of people are pouring money into the campaigns of frontrunners. In looking for the candidate’s most prominent donors, I found OpenSecret.org. This organization has detailed reports of each candidate’s campaign contributors with the campaign contributions broken up into demographic, industry, and location. You can tell a lot about a candidate by looking at their campaign contributors, so here is some of the info I found on Mitt Romney, Ron Paul, and Rick Santorum…

(*Note: In the “Top Contributors” section, as per the website: “The organizations themselves did not donate, rather the money came from the organizations' PACs, their individual members or employees or owners, and those individuals' immediate families. Organization totals include subsidiaries and affiliates.”)

MITT ROMNEY:
Total $ Raised: $32,212,389
Debt: $0

Top Metro Areas that Contribute: New York ($2,634,763), Boston ($2,076,144), Washington, DC-MD-VA-WV ($1,345,000), Houston ($1,174,575), Los Angeles-Long Beach ($1,091,351).
Top Industries that Contribute: Securities and Investments, Retired, Real Estate, Lawyers/law firms, Miscellaneous Business
Top Contributors: Goldman Sachs ($367,200), Credit Suisse Group ($203,750), Morgan Stanley ($199,800), HIG Capital ($186,500), Barclays (157,750). (Others: Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase & Co, Wells Fargo, Citigroup)

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres12/candidate.php?id=N00000286

RON PAUL:
Total $ Raised: $12,623,422
Debt: $0

Top Metro Areas that Contribute: Houston ($169,111), Los Angeles-Long Beach ($163,910), New York ($151,387), Austin-San Marcos ($118,971), Washington, DC-MD-VA-WV ($107,843).
Top Industries that Contribute: Miscellaneous Business, Retired, Candidate Committees, Health Professionals, Computers/Internet.
Top Contributors: US Army, US Air Force, US Navy, Mason Capitol Management, Microsoft Corp. (Others: Boeing, US Government, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Department of Defense).

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres12/candidate.php?cycle=2012&id=N00005906

RICK SANTORUM:
Total $ Raised: $1,286,975
Debt: $71,866

Top Metro Areas that Contribute: Philadelphia, PA-NJ ($139,562), Washington, DC- MD-VA-WV ($78,450), Pittsburgh ($66,750), Sarasota-Bradenton ($44,300), Scranton-Wilkes-Barre-Hazleton ($36,900).
Top Industries that Contribute: Retired, Miscellaneous Business, Real Estate, Securities and Investment, Insurance.
Top Contributors: Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Universal Health Services, Kimber Manufacturing, El Dorado Holdings, Achristavest. (Others: Northwestern Mutual Life, CONSOL Energy, Diamond Manufacturing).

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres12/candidate.php?cycle=2012&id=N00001380

And just to compare, here are the same statistics on Barack Obama…

Total $ Raised: $86,215,580
Debt: $1,709, 300

Top Metro Areas that Contribute: New York ($4,522,865), Los Angeles-Long Beach ($3,330,018), Washington, DC-MD-VA-WV ($3,307,094), Chicago ($2,473,302), Boston, MA-NH ($2,425,617).
Top Industries that Contribute: Retired, Miscellaneous Business, Lawyers/Law firms, Education, Securities and Investment
Top Contributors: Microsoft Corp., Comcast Corp., University of California, Harvard University, Google. (Others: Goldman Sachs, Columbia University, Time Warner).

http://www.opensecrets.org/pres12/candidate.php?cycle=2012&id=N00009638

Well, what do you think of these numbers? Mitt Romney is leading the GOP in fundraising amounts but definitely has the support of banks and financial institutions. I found it interesting that Ron Paul’s top donors come from the military—no other candidate has as much support from the military as Ron Paul. Considering his stances on foreign policy, this is telling. It’s interesting to note that Santorum and Obama’s campaigns are in debt (as is Newt Gingrich), and that much of Obama’s campaign money comes from educational institutions.

Hopefully this post gave you some insight as to where the money is coming from in several of the candidate’s campaigns. I’ll be watching coverage of the New Hampshire Primary tonight and hopefully post again tomorrow. Have a great day, everyone! ☺

“Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.”