Western Resorts Hold Presidential Race’s Purse Strings

By David Frey, 10-03-07

Jackson, Wyo., may not carry the weight of Iowa or New Hampshire when it comes to presidential politics, but in terms of fund raising, this small town’s sway far surpasses its size. Same goes for Aspen, Colo., Park City, Utah, and in general, resorts across the Rockies.

In the West, being a small town doesn’t necessarily mean being small time. Resort residents with deep pockets can mean big money for presidential candidates. Red or blue, these resort towns are outsized players in the game of presidential fund raising.

As presidential candidates file their third-quarter campaign finance reports with the Federal Election Commission, they’ve already started boasting about what they’ve raked in or making the most of what they haven’t in the quarter ending Sept. 30. Details won’t be available until the Oct. 15 deadline.

But filings from the previous quarter give a glimpse of what we can expect. The winners and losers may shift with the political winds. The numbers – and the stakes – will grow. But one thing won’t change: The West’s small resort towns carry a lot of weight when it comes to bankrolling campaigns.

That’s clearest in Wyoming, where posh Jackson gave more money to presidential candidates in the second quarter than anywhere else in the state, including Wyoming’s largest cities. Neighbors Wilson and Moose ranked second and third. Combined, these towns gave far more money than the rest of the state altogether.

Jackson handed out $41,705 to presidential candidates in the second quarter. Among candidates, Republican Mitt Romney was the winner. He leads the state, too. But Democratic campaign committees were the real winners, thanks largely to one couple who handed out more than $100,000 to a host of causes and candidates. Counting political action committees and legislative races, Jackson has given more than $204,000 for the 2008 elections.

The average Jackson donor gave $1,158. That’s almost 10 times what their colleagues in, say, Sheridan gave. And that doesn’t count second homeowners registered in other states.

Jackson didn’t just dominate Wyoming. It dominated rural America. The Web site www.dailyyonder.com, which tracks rural issues, ranked Teton County the fourth-highest contributor to presidential candidates among rural counties, and the top among rural counties in the Rockies.

Down five spots at No. 9, and across the political spectrum, is left-leaning Pitkin County, Colo., home to Aspen. Aspen ranks well behind Denver and Boulder, but its $44,905 in contributions put it on par with Colorado Springs, a politically-active town of the conservative persuasion, 65 times its size. Counting political action committees and legislative campaigns, Pitkin County’s contribution triples.

“It’s a major stop across the country,” says Pitkin County Democratic Party Chairwoman Camilla Auger. “It’s Los Angeles, New York, Aspen and a couple other places, obviously Washington, D.C., must-do stops on every campaign trail on the Democratic side at the very least. It’s not just another resort town. It’s a major political center.”

Democrat Barack Obama was the big winner in Aspen for the first half of the year, but Hillary Clinton took the lion’s share of contributions in the second quarter. Aspen doesn’t often mirror the rest of the country, but this time, the Democrats’ race for cash here resembles their battle across the country. Clinton made a stop here. So did John Edwards. Obama is expected to make an appearance, too.

Trailing Pitkin County on Daily Yonder’s rural tally is Summit County, Utah. That’s home to Park City, which, like the state, seemed to be minting money for Romney. Obama made a stop here, too, but he couldn’t keep up with Romney, a Mormon, who managed the 2002 Winter Olympics in Park City. He walked away with 92 percent of all the funds raised in that town for any presidential candidate, Republican or Democrat.

Other big givers: Eagle County, Colo., home to Vail, traditionally a Republican vacation spot (and longtime getaway for former President Gerald Ford) raised almost $25,000 in the second quarter, almost all of it going to Obama and Clinton.

Moneyed resorts don’t always mirror the politics of their states. But so far, the money raised in high-rolling towns has been largely in line with their states. No big surprise that Taos, N.M., joins the bulk of the state in chipping in for favorite son Sen. Bill Richardson. Or that Flagstaff and Phoenix agree on Arizona’s Sen. John McCain. Utah communities are nearly unanimous behind Romney. Idaho, whether Boise or Sun Valley, has been kind to Romney, too.

The oddest results are in Montana. Obama was the big winner in the state in the second quarter, even though he topped only a handful of (mostly small) communities. Still, he raked in more money overall, besting Romney.

As the third quarter closes, the candidates are jockeying for position in the war for the war chest. Mountain resort towns may lack the votes, but they wield the power of the purse.

Two good places to track who you’re neighbors are contributing to: the Washington Post tallies contributions by state and town. The Center for Responsive Politics tracks contributions by zip code, and by individual contributor.