Posted on 06/12/2011 9:13:42 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
The first votes for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination are still months away, but Ohioans have already given nearly a quarter of a million dollars to would-be candidates, including $58,000 to “SarahPAC,” former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s political action committee.
Trailing just behind Palin in cash from Ohioans is former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s “Free and Strong America PAC,” which has received $50,000.
Ohio, long a bellwether in presidential politics, isn’t necessarily considered a must-win for Republican primary candidates.
But the enthusiasm a candidate musters in the Buckeye state — including financial contributions — can be indicative of how they’ll do in the general election.
“Ohio’s always going to be a focus of presidential elections,” said Dave Levinthal, a spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics, which collects and analyzes data about political fundraising. “If one candidate is doing particularly well there, that could to some degree foreshadow their success later.”
Ohio money is important, too.
Before presidential candidates launch formal campaigns, they raise money through leadership PACs — political action committees that politicians use for indirect sponsoring of a candidacy. The funds can be used for travel, political consulting fees or polling.
Levinthal calls those PACs a “barometer” of early support.
Later, Ohio can be expected to be a significant donor to campaign coffers.
In 2008, presidential campaign donations from Ohio totaled nearly $16 million.
Palin has long cast a shadow on the Republican field, though she has not declared her candidacy. Unless she announces she is not running, and maybe even after that, she will remain a factor.
“I think Sarah Palin is a true patriotic American,” said Patricia Alderson, 62, a community organizer for charitable giving from West Chester Twp. in Butler County who gave SarahPAC $2,000 in November 2009. “She wants to do the right thing. She’s a person who speaks from her heart and she reminds me of a woman fighting for her children. Every time she talks, I’m like, ‘you go, girl.’ ”
Retiree Thomas Bigwood, 83, a Canal Winchester resident, favors Romney, and has given the candidate’s political action committee $1,400 since April 2010.
“I looked over the whole crop and I said, ‘he’s the best of the lot,’ ” Bigwood said.
In recent elections, Ohio has lived up to its swing state reputation. In 2004, Republican George W. Bush won the state with 50.81 percent of the vote. In 2008, Democrat Barack Obama won with 51.5 percent. Then, in the 2010 governor’s race, Republican John Kasich won with 49.04 percent. The average margin of victory in the three races was 2.9 percent.
The 2008 money race was just as tight. Of the $16 million raised from Ohio donors from the primary through the general election, more than $8.1 million went to Republican candidates and more than $7.6 million went to Democrats, according to an analysis of financial contributions by the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics.
Cincinnati led all Ohio metropolitan areas in donations, giving a total of $5.1 million, followed by Cleveland, $4.1 million; and Columbus, $2.7 million. The Dayton-Springfield area raised $805,367.
President Barack Obama, who declared his candidacy for re-election earlier this year, will file fundraising reports in July, Levinthal said.
Cincinnati, which was a heavy early donor to Romney’s primary campaign in 2008, is showing more support for former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty so far this cycle. Of the 53 individual donations to Pawlenty’s PAC, more than 40 came from ZIP codes within Cincinnati. Of the 70 individual donations to Romney’s PAC, 20 were from Cincinnati.
Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who announced his candidacy last week, has also done well: Ohio donors gave his PAC $24,901 so far this cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Some Ohio donors have given money to candidates who later backed out or whose prospects, like Palin’s, remain unclear. Sen. Jim DeMint, a South Carolina conservative who has given mixed indications as to whether he’ll run, has raised $33,650 from Ohioans through his PAC.
John C. Green, director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron, said a later primary season next year is one factor affecting GOP candidate fundraising. “Usually by this time ..., there are a lot of declared candidates and people engaging in what some scholars call ‘the invisible primary,’ ” Green said. “It’s just started very slowly this time.”
Good...
God bless you and all of her supporters! You betcha, FR will be supporting her and FR ROCKS and FR is a force that reaches millions!
We will all be out campaigning for her to the best of our abilities and raising money and sending her as much of our own as we can individually muster!
I’m already setting aside $20 here and there and hiding it from myself...LOL. I just have to remember where I’ve stashed it.
I know you pray for her and I do, also, and I’m praying for God to give her and us the needed strength for her to lead us victory.
He attracts ALL of the WRONG people... and I left out karl rove... sorry karl... but you have NOW been added to the list!
LLS
Who in the HECK is supporting Romney?!!! I don’t know any of them, nor OF them.
SarahPAC is a PAC, not an exploratory committee. None of that money can be used for a WH run.
Aw c'mon. Gibe made me smile ;-)
Love that! Like popcorn popping all across the fruited plain .. LOL
BOOYAH!
Truer words were never spoken.
Please show me where I said it would.
I expect her fundraising to go up by leaps and bounds when she declares. Add five or six zeros to whatever is coming in now. Romney is a declared candidate, do you think that’s happening for him?
Romney = DNC Saboteur against the GOP
Romney = Soros partner and Soros Saboteur against the GOP
Romney = Mr. RomneyCARE
Romney = Mr. TARP
Romney = Mr. BIG-DIG coverup
Romney = Mr. Gay Marriage Imposer
Romney = Mr. MoreTaxesCalled’Fees’
Yep! :-)
LLS
I wonder where they are getting the numbers from. Last year?
This year SarahPac is required to report the period from Jan 1 to June 30 by the end of July.
Those are the numbers I’d like to see. I’d bet she’s raised quite a bit of cash since hitting 3 million on FB.
That's easy. Romney is the leading fundraiser among the declared candidates, and he's the first choice of the mainstream media and of the Obama Regime. The fact that Romney is trailing a non-candidate is pathetic, but Sarah's "not serious", "not smart", and "not running", so why worry?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.