Employees of New York’s two largest private universities give almost three times more money to Democratic presidential candidates than they do to Republicans, federal election records show.

RELATED: A Graph of Columbia, NYU Employee Donations

College professors and New York City residents are traditionally more left wing than the general population, making Columbia University and New York University fertile territory for Democratic candidates looking for cash. Donors employed by Columbia have given $98,850 to Democratic presidential candidates in this election cycle, nearly triple the $34,200 that employees there have given to Republican candidates, according to a New York Sun analysis of Federal Election Commission data. Donors employed at NYU have given $62,300 to Democrats and $21,450 to Republicans, also a roughly three-to-one ratio. Several Republican candidates secured no apparent donations at all from the two schools, including Michael Huckabee, who won a major victory in the Iowa caucuses this month. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, who has enjoyed fund-raising success nationally, took in a total of $500 from the two institutions.

A Republican candidate from New York City, Mayor Giuliani, was the only one to challenge senators Clinton and Obama for dominance among campus contributors. Mr. Giuliani’s campaign drew $24,400 from those listing Columbia as their employer and $20,200 from those listing NYU. An assistant professor of sociology at Harvard University who studies faculty opinions, Neil Gross, says the fund-raising totals are in line with academic research on the subject.

“The liberalness of American professors is, I think, sometimes overstated by conservatives, but it’s definitely a liberal occupational niche,” Mr. Gross said yesterday. “Professors have supported Democratic candidates over Republicans for at least several decades, going back to the 1960s.”

According to Mr. Gross’s research, 51% of college professors nationwide identify as Democrats versus 13.7% who identify as Republican.

“The number of conservatives in academia is declining. The number of self-described moderates is growing, while those naming themselves liberal has remained fairly constant in the last 30 years.” Mr. Gross said.

At least one organization, the David Horowitz Freedom Center and its offshoot, Students for Academic Freedom, is so concerned about the left-wing tilt of the faculty that it is promoting an “Academic Bill of Rights” that would have institutions commit that their professors not use their courses for political indoctrination and that their students not be graded on the basis of their political beliefs.

Mrs. Clinton might be thought to have a leg up at NYU. Not only does she represent New York, but her campaign’s top lawyer, Cheryl Mills, is a top NYU administrator, and another campaign aide, Sidney Blumenthal, is a fellow at NYU law school. But Mr. Obama leads in donations from NYU staff with $31,450 to Ms. Clinton’s $22,550. Mrs. Clinton dominates Columbia with $52,400 in donations to Mr. Obama’s $31,550, according to the Sun’s analysis of FEC records.

Mr. Gross suggested that academics’ distaste for the war in Iraq could factor into Mr. Obama’s strong showing on Ms. Clinton’s turf.

“Whatever the other differences between them, Obama has been pretty consistent against the Iraq war and our data shows professors overwhelmingly think the Iraq war has been a disaster. Not only do they feel strongly about it, but their attitudes about it have a lot of salience when it comes to explaining their political behavior,” Mr. Gross said.

He added that local issues often take a backseat to national ones for professors, many of whom do not hail from the area in which they teach.

Professors and administrators at the two universities listed a variety of reasons for supporting the two leading Democratic candidates.

“I have watched my students, who are dedicating their political lives to public service, become increasingly disillusioned with how business is conducted in Washington,” said one Obama supporter, a professor of public policy at NYU, Katherine O’Regan. “On a personal and political level I think we need someone like Obama who inspires confidence and enthusiasm in civic service.”

A professor of social work at Columbia, Grace Christ, described Mrs. Clinton as “intelligent, experienced, committed and has demonstrated her commitments through effective action.”

Several faculty members said they would be happy with either Mr. Obama or Mrs. Clinton.

An NYU rheumatologist who backs Mrs. Clinton, Pamela Rosenthal, called them “both great candidates.”

At least one Obama supporter, Karl Kroeber, who is Mellon professor of the humanities at Columbia, said, “What really intrigues me is not my preference, since I can’t see how any intelligent person could arrive at a different view, but the evidence that I’ve been discovering that our so-called intellectuals make up their minds on the basis of no solid evidence they have examined personally.”

Mr. Obama’s rally in Washington Square Park in September may have boosted his appeal among NYU staff. The Obama campaign estimated the event brought in 24,000 people, and a poll by NYU journalism students the next month found that 40% of NYU students favored Mr. Obama versus 20% who supported Ms. Clinton, according to Politico.

Mrs. Clinton may enjoy a similar boost at Columbia, one professor suggested, since her husband works from his Harlem offices nearby and had heart surgery at Columbia’s hospital.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, residents of the New York metropolitan area have donated about $28.4 million to Democratic presidential hopefuls and $10.7 million to Republicans as of September 30 of last year.