Westerners Holding Up in Race for Presidential Contributions

By Nathaniel Hoffman, 8-02-07

I once had a purely moralistic stance against giving money to candidates.

Recently, I find myself wavering between morality, stinginess and the desire to pack my bags and move to a benevolent dictatorship in the tropics.

But, my fellow western Americans, this is not the way of the West. In fact, voters in the eight states of the Mountain West have logged onto their checkbooks at a rate similar to their countrymen on the coasts.

Presidential candidates took $19 million dollars out of the Western states in the first half of 2007. That is only 6.5 percent of the whopping $296 million raised by presidential contenders as of June 30. And since the western states are home to just about 7 percent of the U.S. population, presidential candidates should be pleased with their Rocky Mountain telemarketers and e-blasters.

	Here's how the West is spending this cycle so far. Click on the chart and a larger, more readable version will pop up.

Particularly Republicans, who raised almost $11 million dollars here, most of it in Utah and Arizona, and more than half of it going to Mitt Romney. Western Republicans are giving more per capita than national Republicans. Almost 15 percent of Romney’s take has come from the West. Not bad for the governor of Massachusetts.

Nevadans like Rudy Giuliani and Arizonans gave more money to their homeboy John McCain. You can see who is leading the money race in each state here.

Among Demorcrats, New Mexico governor Bill Richardson has brought in the most Western cash. Almost $5 million, but the vast majority of it comes from Albuquerque. Know anyone there?

The Obama-Clinton horse race is playing out in the West as well, with the Illinois senator a bit ahead of the New York one. Obama has pulled in almost a million bucks in Colorado alone, and is the top fund raiser there overall.

And then there’s the other guys. The candidates that are so easy to discount because they don’t have the dough.

I have been seeing signs for Ron Paul all over Boise. The Texas congressman is kind of an enigma to me but I have figured out that he is not Sean Paul. That was disappointing. I did just learn that he is an obstetrician though. And in learning that I may have increased his Google props.

One Boise resident assumed Ron Paul was a Democrat because the little signs popping up all around town appear homemade.

And there is Dennis Kucinich who needs some friends in Wyoming.

I’m all for peace, but I had a very restless night once in the Cleveland bus station. Has the former Cleveland mayor done anything about that yet? Maybe he has…

Also, Kucinich is a vegan.

There is a guy named Cox who has only raised $173 in the West. I am not even going to Google him unless someone gives me a reason to.

So the serious question of whether the Rocky Mountains are relevant in presidential politics remains. From a money standpoint, westerners are holding their own with the rest of the nation.

But I still may end up in the tropics. [End of article]