Rum, Romanism and Rebellion

Much has been made about how much money John McCain has raised in Arizona, but little attention has been paid to how much money Democratic candidates have raised in Arizona. Y’all could check this out yourself on Open Secrets, but you’ll miss my brilliant and insightful commentary.

Yeah.

Anyway, here are the raw numbers:

Bill Richardson – $71,325
Barack Obama – $64,143
John Edwards – $52,415
Hillary Clinton – $48,275
Christopher Dodd – $31,950
Mike Gravel – $150
Joe Biden – $50
Dennis Kucinich – $0

If you rank them by number of contributors, you get:

Barack Obama – 87
Bill Richardson – 63
John Edwards – 46
Hillary Clinton – 36
Christopher Dodd – 29
Mike Gravel – 3
Joe Biden – 1
Dennis Kucinich – 0

Already, something is interesting here. Richardson, who is considered a second tier candidate by the national media, has a great deal of support in Arizona. Clinton, our front runner, has only raised 2/3 of the ammount Richardson has among Arizonans and has only a shade more than half of his number of contributors.

An indicator that I always use for enthusiasm is when you see contributions of odd ammounts. If you see a donation for $12 or $9, this is usually a person on a fixed income carefully checking how much money they have in their account, or a person who showed up at an event and checked how much cash was in his or her wallet. In either case, these sort of donations are generated by a different quality of enthusiasm than a big player writing another $1000 check. The only one to get donations in odd ammounts: Obama.

I only noticed one name that had given to more than one candidate. Pam Sutherland (Ted Downing’s favorite!) gave to both Clinton and Edwards. Sutherland was one of the attorneys that was cultivated by the Edwards campaign in the 2004 race, but she also wears another hat as the head of Arizona List, a group that supports female candidates.

One name that did not show up on any list was Jim Pederson. Pederson, in addition to being our former Democratic Party Chairman and Senate candidate, is regarded as one of the biggest Democratic givers in the country. I spoke with him a couple of weeks ago and he said he had not made up his mind about who to support.

What is also interesting is where these contributions come from. I went through the lists to see where the contributors live and how much people are giving. Also, I noted names that I found on each list that were interesting for one reason or another. I aggregated contributions, so if a person gave a $75 dollar check and $50 dollar check, I considered that person one contributor who gave $125.

Joe Biden (Senator, Delaware) – The palaverous solon only managed a single contributor in Arizona, a man in Paradise Valley named Thomas A. Stephen. Sen. Biden, meet your Arizona chairman.

Hillary Clinton (Senator, New York) – Clinton’s money came mostly in large ammounts. No contribution was less than $100, and when multiple contributions were added, no contributor gave less than $250 for the period.

Where did her contributions come from?

• Maricopa County – contributors: 26, $32,375 (67.1%)
• Pima County – contributors: 7, $14,400 (29.8%)
• Pinal County – contributors: 1, $1000 (2.1%)
• Yavapai County – contributors: 2, $500 (1.0%)

Names on Clinton’s list include Democratic activist and Sahuarita resident Pam Grissom and Phoenix attorney Andrew Federhar.

Christopher Dodd (Senator, Connecticut) – Nearly all of Dodd’s contributors came from the Phoenix area. No contribution to Dodd was less than $250.

• Coconino County – contributors:1, $250 (0.8%)
• Maricopa County – contributors: 28, $31,700 (99.2%)

Interesting names on the list include Phoenix attorney Paul Eckstein, who gave $2,300. John Sperling, Peter Sperling and Stephanie Sperling each gave $2,300 as well.

John Edwards (Former Senator, North Carolina) – Edwards seems to have done a good job of keeping in touch with the folks who contributed to his 2004 campaign. Also, Edwards is the only candidate who got the majority of his contributions from outside of Maricopa County. The smallest ammount given to Edwards was $250, with nearly half of the contributions for $1000 or more.

• Coconino County – contributors: 1, $4,600 (8.8%)
• Maricopa County – contributors: 21, $19,050 (36.3%)
• Pima County – contributors: 21, $25,500 (48.7%)
• Yavapai County – contributors: 2, $2,715 (5.2%)
• Pinal County – contributors: 1, $550 (1.0%)

Edwards’s contributors include local attorneys Richard Gonzales, Douglas Levy, Clague Van Slyke III and Pam Sutherland. Phoenix attorney and member of the Young Democrats Cara Walsh also gave. Two long time Pima County Democratic activists, Pat Rigg and Judy Nagle, were also givers.

Mike Gravel (former Senator, Alaska) – Interestingly, Gravel did a better job of fundraising than his better known fellow progressive Dennis Kucinich. The Open Secrets site listed, for some odd reason, a resident of Hot Springs, Arkansas as an Arizona contributor. I didn’t count him.

• Maricopa County – contributors: 1, $100 (66.7%)
• Mohave County – contributors: 1, $25 (16.7%)
• Pima County – contributors: 1, $25 (16.7%)

One of Sen. Gravel’s contributions came from former legislator and Republican turned Democrat Slade Mead.

Dennis Kucinich (Representative, Ohio) – Rep. Kucinich recieved no contributions from our state. In 2004, he managed to raise over $40,000 from Arizonans. Either he hasn’t done a good job of keeping in touch with these contributors, or they are supporting other candidates this year.

Barack Obama (Senator, Illinois) – Obama is out in front on the number of contributors. He has a great deal of smaller contributions, but many of these people gave several times. If these are aggregated, no contributor gave less than $225. A couple of contributors gave odd ammounts, but did so several times.

• Coconino County – contributors: 1, $250 (0.4%)
• Maricopa County – contributors: 55, $43,542 (67.9%)
• Pima County – contributors: 26, $18,701 (29.2%)
• Pinal County – contributors: 1, $250 (0.4%)
• Yavapai County – contributors: 4, $1,400 (2.2%)

Contributors to Obama include Tucsonan Ruth Tankersley, a member of a family heavily engaged in local philanthropy. Former legislators David Bartlett and Wally Straughn were among the givers. Democratic activist Shirley McCallister also gave.

Bill Richardson (Governor, New Mexico) – Well, you know Arizona was part of New Mexico between 1848 and 1863, right? So, maybe these results are because we are on Richardson’s home turf. Nearly half of Richardson’s contributors gave $1000 or more. There are a few more Hispanic names on Richardson’s list than you find on the others.

• Coconino County – contributors: 1, $1000 (1.4%)
• Maricopa County – contributors: 46, $54,500 (76.4%)
• Pima County – contributors: 12, $11,675 (16.4%)
• Pinal County – contributors: 1, $1000 (1.4%)
• Santa Cruz County – contributors: 1, $250 (0.4%)
• Yavapai County: contributors: 2, $350 (0.5%)

The name that jumped out at me on this list was Democratic karmazyn Fred Duval. Other prominent Democrats include Ron Ober, Minnette Burges and former boy-mayor of Nogales Marco A. Lopez. 2006 congressional candidate Alex Rodriguez gave as well.