The news for Norm Coleman just keeps getting worse.

Fresh off his recent attempt to sell to the public (and the three-judge panel hearing his recount challenge) that the State of Minnesota should hold a new election, the private information of nearly 5,000 donors to his political campaign was made public on Wednesday – information that the Coleman campaign believes is the result of a cyber-attack.

Smart Politics examined the donor data to determine from where Coleman’s compromised campaign contributors came. In total, more than 4,700 donors had their private information made public, with contributions in excess of $754,000.

Minnesotans led the way, with 1,837 contributors – or 39 percent of all ‘exposed’ donors – an interesting statistic, considering one of the Coleman campaign’s frequent charges against Franken during the campaign was that Franken was an ‘outsider’ who received most of his money from out of state (i.e. from the “Hollywood left”).

However, from this donor list, though not a complete listing of all who have given money to Coleman since his re-election campaign began, more than 60 percent of the donors came from outside the Gopher State.

Overall, these 1,800+ Minnesota contributors gave Coleman $237,180 (31.4 percent of the funds raised on this donor list), with donations ranging from $25 to $4,600. The statewide average contribution by Minnesotans of $129.11 was nearly $30 less per individual than the nationwide average of $157.70.

In total, 18 of the top 21 states with the largest number of contributors on this list came from states won by Barack Obama, with Texas (#3), Arizona (#12), and Georgia (#14) being the only “McCain states” with a large number of donors. Americans from every U.S. State plus the District of Columbia and Guam had their private information compromised, with the exception of the State of New Hampshire.

A recent Rasmussen poll had seemingly given Coleman some hope during the past week – with a plurality of Minnesotans (46 percent) now in favor of the State holding a “redo” election for its U.S. Senate race.

But now, one wonders, should Coleman get his wish at a new election, how successful would he be in raising the necessary funds, after the e-mail addresses, occupations, phone numbers, mailing addresses, and detailed credit card information (cardholder name, last four digits, and CSC numbers) of thousands of donors have spread across the Internet?

Norm Coleman’s Compromised Campaign Donors, By State

State
Contributors
Amount
Average
Minnesota
1,837
$237,180
$129.11
California
522
$83,504
$159.97
Texas
294
$53,702
$182.66
New York
247
$45,866
$185.69
Florida
190
$50,497
$265.77
Virginia
155
$47,465
$306.23
Illinois
146
$34,804
$238.38
Colorado
114
$12,285
$107.76
Pennsylvania
112
$15,750
$140.63
Maryland
92
$22,064
$239.83
New Jersey
92
$24,781
$269.36
Arizona
79
$11,153
$141.18
Ohio
72
$4,640
$64.44
Georgia
64
$12,088
$188.88
Massachusetts
58
$11,860
$204.48
Washington
51
$5,825
$114.22
Wisconsin
49
$7,564
$154.37
North Carolina
47
$2,461
$52.36
D.C.
45
$11,215
$249.22
Connecticut
41
$9,393
$229.10
Indiana
39
$3,350
$85.90
Tennessee
27
$2,055
$76.11
Kentucky
26
$5,645
$217.12
South Carolina
25
$1,130
$45.20
Oklahoma
24
$1,635
$68.13
Kansas
22
$2,255
$102.50
Oregon
22
$2,130
$96.82
Michigan
20
$1,073
$53.65
Missouri
17
$2,715
$159.71
Louisiana
15
$1,150
$76.67
Nevada
15
$2,000
$133.33
Alabama
14
$930
$66.43
Hawaii
14
$1,330
$95.00
North Dakota
13
$1,000
$76.92
Maine
12
$385
$32.08
Arkansas
10
$625
$62.50
Iowa
10
$695
$69.50
New Mexico
9
$1,275
$141.67
Utah
9
$725
$80.56
Wyoming
9
$6,000
$666.67
Mississippi
6
$635
$105.83
South Dakota
6
$2,275
$379.17
West Virginia
6
$2,965
$494.17
Armed Services
5
$150
$30.00
Alaska
5
$300
$60.00
Idaho
5
$100
$20.00
Montana
5
$250
$50.00
Nebraska
5
$275
$55.00
Delaware
4
$150
$37.50
Rhode Island
4
$4,725
$1,181.25
Guam
3
$117
$39.00
Vermont
2
$75
$37.50
New Hampshire
0
$0
$0.00
Total
4,715
$754,217
$157.70

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UPDATE: Thanks to Grace Kelly at MN Progressive Project for clarifying that the data listed above reflects pledges to the Coleman campaign from donors, not receipts. Some credit card payments were rejected.

5 Comments

  1. Tommy Johnson on March 13, 2009 at 8:41 am

    “…– information that the Coleman campaign believes is the result of a cyber-attack.”

    Professor, beg to differ. Although, clearly, the Coleman campaign is “claiming” there was a cyber-attack” it is not known that they actually “believe” that.

    I would submit Team Coleman’s claim is spin – pure spin and nothing but spin; that they “know” that there was no “cyber-attack.” But, that’s just my opinion.

    That said, I should also say I appreciate your taking the time to dig into the list.

    I’m surprised at the number and amount of contributions that came in from out of state.

  2. Eric Ostermeier on March 13, 2009 at 10:17 am

    > Although, clearly, the Coleman campaign is “claiming” there
    > was a cyber-attack” it is not known that they actually “believe”
    > that.

    True, though one can never know what a campaign actually believes – only what they assert. And that is what they are asserting, though, as you are hinting, it is an assertion being made amidst much skepticism in the blogosphere.

  3. Grace Kelly on March 13, 2009 at 2:32 pm

    The database contained both successful and unsuccessful attempts to get credit card donations. Did you screen out unsuccessful attempts? Because your totals are different than the totals that I calculated and your totals are higher.

  4. Eric Ostermeier on March 13, 2009 at 3:52 pm

    > The database contained both successful and unsuccessful
    > attempts to get credit card donations. Did you screen out
    > unsuccessful attempts?

    These numbers reflect the commitment/pledges, correct, not the number of successful donations that went through. Approximately 1 in 10 credit card pledges had errors, I believe.

  5. Grace Kelly on March 14, 2009 at 4:57 pm

    So looking that the total number, that does not cover court costs. RNC is providing some costs. Where is the rest of the money coming from?

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