California, the ATM for politicians nationwide, has spit out cash for Barack Obama at an extraordinary clip. One of every five dollars he has raised in itemized contributions to his campaign has come from the Golden State.
At last count, in mid-October, the Democratic presidential nominee had withdrawn $84 million from California, or 20% of his contributions of more than $200 -- the threshold at which campaigns must disclose detailed information about donors.
The $84 million was two-thirds more than Obama collected from the next most generous state, New York. It also exceeds the $83.7 million raised in California for all federal races a decade ago, when the state emerged as the richest source of campaign money.
John McCain got far less from California, a state that is expected today to vote heavily for Obama. The Republican nominee raised $25 million.
A Times analysis of California's role in bankrolling federal elections also found that the state has contributed a larger slice of the campaign accounts for the major party candidates than in 2004. Obama's take, one-fifth of his itemized contributions, was up from John F. Kerry's 17%. McCain's California contribution was 12%, higher than George W. Bush's 10%.
Federal Election Commission records show that Californians have provided 13% of the $2.6 billion in itemized donations raised by candidates for president and Congress and by the two major parties. Millions have been sent to hopefuls nationwide, notably Democrats seeking U.S. Senate seats, including Al Franken in Minnesota, Mark Udall in Colorado and Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire.
Californians have also sent $33 million to independent campaign groups.
But nowhere has the state's impact been more apparent than in the presidential race.
About 126,000 Californians made donations to Obama and McCain. Most of the money has come from people who list their occupation as self-employed, retiree, student or homemaker.
Obama tapped employees of Silicon Valley companies, Hollywood studios, law firms, universities, state and local governments, and many others.
Among employers, Obama's single largest source was the University of California, with professors and other employees contributing $1.3 million.
Among California-based companies, Google employees were Obama's richest source, at $562,241.
Nationally, Google's employees almost tied Microsoft's as Obama's largest source of money from a single company -- $727,000 from workers at Google and $729,000 from those at Microsoft.
