Mainers have opened their wallets fewer times for the two candidates who have the best chance to win their party’s nomination for president and more often for those who are either long shots, mathematically eliminated or dropped out of the race altogether.
According to Federal Election Commission contribution data, Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders is the most popular candidate in terms of dollars donated by Mainers and the number of individual contributions. Sanders has received over 11,000 individual contributions totaling more than $557,000 through March 31, the most recent financial report.
Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner who is close to capturing the delegates needed to secure the nomination, has received close to $390,000 from 2,312 individual contributors.
Many of Clinton’s donations are clustered in the southern part of the state. But even in Portland, the former secretary of state has been bested by Sanders, the self-described Democratic socialist from Vermont. Portlanders have donated to Sanders more than 1,200 times compared to 277 for Clinton.
All told, Sanders had the edge in individual donors in all but 35 of the Maine towns that gave to him or Clinton.
On the Republican side, Maine donors have shown the most interest in candidates who are no longer in the race. Jeb Bush, who dropped out of the campaign Feb. 21 after struggling throughout his presidential bid, has received close to $135,000 in donations. Mainers have given to the former Florida governor more than 1,600 times, far and away more than the 23 individual contributions garnered by Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner.
U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who dominated the Maine Republican caucus contest in March, is second in the money race with over $71,000 in donations. Carly Fiorina, who dropped out of the race Feb. 10, was third with close to $70,000 in donations.
Fiorina and Bush supporters include many longtime conservative donors in Maine politics. Conversely, few high-profile donors have given to Trump, who received just over $5,000 in donations and finished second in the March caucus.
Overall, Mainers have given over $1.4 million to presidential hopefuls, according to FEC data. That total includes more than 16,600 individual donations.
Federal election law requires campaigns to identify the sources of all donations of $50 or more, and sets a maximum donation of $2,700 per person per race. The donations analyzed for this report were made to the candidates’ campaigns and don’t include contributions that Mainers may have made to political parties or political action committees involved in the presidential campaign.
Clinton’s contributions were heavily clustered in southern Maine. Portland residents, which have given over $87,000 to presidential candidates, contributed close to $50,000 to the Democratic front-runner, the most of any Maine municipality. Cape Elizabeth residents were second with over $49,000 in Clinton donations.
Sanders had more Portland donations, but with $12,366 received less cash than Clinton. Sanders also had a wider geographical disbursement of donations.
The same was true of Cruz, whose donations were scattered throughout the state. By contrast, Bush’s, like Clinton’s, were concentrated in about a dozen communities. The bulk of Bush’s contributions was in Falmouth, with $34,600, and Kennebunkport, with $24,875. Kennebunkport happens to be where George H.W. Bush and Barbara Bush, Jeb’s parents, have a home.
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