Romney's Utah Cash
by Ryan Sager
Mon, 16 Apr 2007 at 10:44 AM
updated Mon, 16 Apr 2007 at 1:49 AM
Normally, if you heard that a candidate's second-biggest state for campaign donations was Utah, you'd have to assume that this was not one of your bigger-dollar candidates.
Of course, 2008 is no normal campaign. And the candidate in question is Mitt Romney.
Just take a look at this state-by-state breakdown of Mr. Romney's fundraising, and a one thing quickly jump out at you...
Mr. Romney had more states where he had a natural base of support than any other candidate in the race — at least on the Republican side. Utah (he's Mormon, he ran the Salt Lake City Olympics), Massachusetts (governor), and Michigan (his father was governor) all delivered big.
Here's a chart of Mr. Romney's top 10 states:
| State |
Sum |
| California |
$3,448,821 |
| Utah |
$2,772,771 |
| Massachusetts |
$2,329,399 |
| New York |
$1,062,692 |
| Texas |
$1,056,550 |
| Michigan |
$1,026,060 |
| Florida |
$1,007,080 |
| Arizona |
$659,460 |
| Ohio |
$503,630 |
| Connecticut |
$471,328 |
By way of contrast, Rudy Giuliani raised $76,150 in Utah; he raised $48,750 in Michigan, and he raised $93,375 in Massachusetts. (Of course, Mr. Giuliani cleaned up in New York: $3,041,031.)
The point is that while Massachusetts and Michigan money won't raise too many eyebrows, money from Utah only adds to Mr. Romney's "Mormon problem." His campaign claims that the Utah connection that matters is the Salt Lake City Olympics. But voters worried about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints influencing the governor aren't likely to take that at face value.
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