As has been widely reported since the new quarterly fundraising data was released by the FEC late last week, South Carolina Republican Congressman Joe Wilson notched a jaw-dropping $2.69 million in contributions to his 2010 reelection campaign.

Wilson gained recent notoriety in some circles for his “You lie” outburst last September 9th during President Barack Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress on health care reform, but the 5-term Congressman also inspired a groundswell of support from around the country in the form of small and large donor individual contributions for his reelection campaign next year.

A Smart Politics analysis of the nearly 1,200 itemized individual donors who sent Wilson contributions in the third quarter of 2009 finds that states that voted for John McCain in the 2008 presidential election contributed 83 percent more money per capita than those who supported Barack Obama.

McCain states contributed an average of $271.98 per 100,000 residents compared to just $148.45 per 100,000 residents in Obama states. An average of $187.07 per 100,000 residents nationwide sent in large donor ($200+ contributions) to Wilson last quarter.

Even after excluding the $95,300 raised by Wilson in South Carolina, McCain states (at $179.33 per 100,000 residents) still contributed at a 20.8 percent higher rate to Wilson than Obama states (at $148.45).

Overall, Wilson’s itemized large donor funding was up 710 percent from the 2nd quarter of 2009 – from $70,252 to $568,794. While that is a huge boost, it is only a slice of the vast increase he experienced in unitemized (small donor) contributions that poured in from around the country (up 23,004 percent – from $8,945 to $2,066,644).

While the state-by-state details of unitemized contributions are not available through the FEC reports, such information can be gleaned from the big money donors.

Wilson received $311,562 in such funds to his campaign in the 28 states that voted for Barack Obama plus the District of Columbia. The Congressman received $256,182 across the 22 states that voted for John McCain (an additional $1,050 came from U.S. territories and unidentified locales).

Because Obama states have a more than 2:1 population advantage over McCain states, the per capita contributions to Wilson were much higher in the McCain states ($271.98) than the Obama states ($148.45).

· Nearly 17 percent of these funds came from Wilson’s home state of South Carolina, which led the way with the highest net and per capita contributions this quarter ($2,127 per 100,000 residents). At $95,300, that marked a 94 percent increase from the second quarter ($49,001) of this year. Wilson raised just $13,300 from South Carolina residents in itemized individual donations in the first quarter of 2009.

· Another red state, Oklahoma, had the second highest per capita rate of contribution, at $422 per 100,000 residents. The Sooner State tallied $15,375 in large donor contributions during the three-month period.

· Rounding out the top five were two Obama states – Florida, at $347 per 100,000 residents, and Virginia, at $325 – and the District of Columbia, at $312.

Virginia and D.C. were two of the few places from which Wilson received out-of-state contributions during the first two quarters of the year, when he was a largely anonymous Congressman around most of the country. Wilson received 31 percent of the $47,151 he tallied in large donor out-of-state individual contributions from January through June of 2009 in Virginia ($14,850). Another $11,550 came from California (24.5 percent) and $8,201 from D.C (17.4 percent) during that six-month period.

In absolute dollars, the leading contributors to the Wilson campaign in the third quarter of this year were South Carolina ($95,300), Texas ($72,449), California ($66,070), Florida ($63,750), Virginia ($25,300), and Pennsylvania ($20,200). Overall, 60.3 percent of Wilson’s large donor contributions poured in from these six states.

But Wilson’s comments did not mobilize many large donors in some corners of the United States. In fact, no resident of Hawaii or Vermont gave Wilson any contributions of $200 or more in the third quarter – the only two states that failed to do so.

North and South Dakota were the two McCain states apparently least enamored by Wilson and his outburst at the President – ranking #47 and #48 in per capita contributions to his campaign. Only one contribution of $250 came in from each of these Upper Midwestern states.

In an interesting development, special interest PAC money was actually down for Wilson in the 3rd quarter by nearly half from the previous quarter – from $109,500 to $58,000. Whether or not Wilson’s controversial comment last month is scaring off organizational money in the long term remains to be seen in future fundraising cycles.

Itemized Individual Contributions to Joe Wilson by State, Q3 2009

Rank
State
Amount
%
Per 100,000
2008 vote
1
South Carolina
$95,300
16.75
$2,127.33
McCain
2
Oklahoma
$15,375
2.70
$422.12
McCain
3
Florida
$63,750
11.21
$347.82
Obama
4
Virginia
$25,300
4.45
$325.65
Obama
5
District of Columbia
$1,850
0.33
$312.59
Obama
6
Texas
$72,449
12.74
$297.81
McCain
7
Nevada
$6,800
1.20
$261.52
Obama
8
Arizona
$15,901
2.80
$244.62
McCain
9
Delaware
$2,000
0.35
$229.07
Obama
10
Louisiana
$8,850
1.56
$200.64
McCain
11
New Mexico
$3,800
0.67
$191.50
Obama
12
Wyoming
$1,000
0.18
$187.73
McCain
13
Alaska
$1,250
0.22
$182.14
McCain
14
Colorado
$8,936
1.57
$180.90
Obama
15
Montana
$1,750
0.31
$180.89
McCain
16
Idaho
$2,750
0.48
$180.47
McCain
17
California
$66,070
11.62
$179.75
Obama
18
New Hampshire
$2,250
0.40
$171.00
Obama
19
Pennsylvania
$20,200
3.55
$162.27
Obama
20
Ohio
$17,700
3.11
$154.10
Obama
21
West Virginia
$2,750
0.48
$151.56
McCain
22
Maryland
$8,000
1.41
$142.01
Obama
23
Tennessee
$8,100
1.42
$130.33
McCain
24
New Jersey
$10,506
1.85
$121.00
Obama
25
Minnesota
$6,300
1.11
$120.68
Obama
26
Kansas
$3,300
0.58
$117.77
McCain
27
Washington
$7,450
1.31
$113.75
Obama
28
Illinois
$14,100
2.48
$109.29
Obama
29
Alabama
$4,856
0.85
$104.16
McCain
30
Connecticut
$3,550
0.62
$101.39
Obama
31
Rhode Island
$1,000
0.18
$95.17
Obama
32
Iowa
$2,800
0.49
$93.25
Obama
33
Utah
$2,500
0.44
$91.36
McCain
34
North Carolina
$7,800
1.37
$84.58
Obama
35
Nebraska
$1,500
0.26
$84.11
McCain
36
Georgia
$8,000
1.41
$82.60
McCain
37
Missouri
$4,550
0.80
$76.97
McCain
38
Wisconsin
$4,250
0.75
$75.52
Obama
39
New York
$13,900
2.44
$71.32
Obama
40
Massachusetts
$4,050
0.71
$62.33
Obama
41
Arkansas
$1,751
0.31
$61.32
McCain
42
Maine
$800
0.14
$60.77
Obama
43
Kentucky
$2,300
0.40
$53.87
McCain
44
Mississippi
$1,450
0.25
$49.34
McCain
45
Michigan
$4,500
0.79
$44.98
Obama
46
Indiana
$2,750
0.48
$43.13
Obama
47
North Dakota
$250
0.04
$38.97
McCain
48
South Dakota
$250
0.04
$31.09
McCain
49
Oregon
$1,150
0.20
$30.34
Obama
50
Hawaii
$0
0.00
$0.00
Obama
50
Vermont
$0
0.00
$0.00
Obama
 
Other
$1,050
0.18
 
 
 
Total
$568,794
100.0
$187.07
 

Per capita data based on 2008 U.S. Census population estimates. FEC data compiled by Smart Politics.

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1 Comment

  1. Democratic Party - Democratic Reform Party on October 22, 2009 at 8:33 pm

    As Democrats of the Democratic Party, we join together in seeking reform within the Democratic Party.

    Many of the elected representatives within the Democratic Party are no longer following in the time-honored footsteps laid down by the founding fathers of our great Nation. More importantly, we as democrats see our elected representatives within the Democratic Party abandoning the values and principles as set forth within the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States.

    Overall, this is only the beginning of our problems as Democrats. The current Democratic Party leadership is corrupted and full of Socialists, and they are gaining evermore control over the members of the Democratic Party, or Nation, and the American people. At the very least, many of them no longer think of themselves as being our elected representatives, and now refer to themselves as leaders of Socialism in the true form of tyrants.

    Most Democrats already know their pleas are only being answered by repeated insult and injury by their elected representatives within the Democratic Party. Despite this, we as Democrats can restore control of the Democratic Party back to the party members. All we need to do is cut off donations to the local, state, and national headquarters of the Democratic Party, and to make sure the donations are made directly to patriotic and honorable Democratic Party candidates that are not corrupted and/or Socialist.

    So spread the message to everyone of our fellow Democrats, for the Democrat members are taking back control of the Democratic Party. Also, please don’t forget to contact and request the Unions and other outside contributors to follow our lead as patriotic Americans.

    Thank you, and God Bless America

    Website: http://www.democraticreformparty.com

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