How Much Money Has Been Going to Obama, Romney?

Use this interactive database to learn more about which presidential candidates have been getting money from Wisconsin residents, and how much. The database includes more than 25,000 individual contributions Wisconsin residents made to the two candidates from April 1, 2011, through the end of August.

The data, which is from the Federal Elections Commission, does not include contributions to political action committees or other outside groups.

President Barack Obama, the known candidate for re-election as a Democrat throughout the entire 1½-year period recorded in the database, received 309* individual donations, totaling $33,703. The average contribution was just over $100.

Republican challenger Mitt Romney, who for the first year of the database record was only one in a large field of candidates, received just 24* contributions from Wauwatosa, but they were much larger. Romney's total through Aug. 31 was $21,917, an average of just over $900 per contribution.

Obama received one maximum individual contribution of $5,000, one that was just over $2,500, and three of $1,000. The president had dozens of contributions in the $25 to $50 range plus a few as low as $10.

Romney, on the other hand, received two maximum contributions of $5,000 and four of $2,500, many of $500 to $1,000, and on the low end few donations of less than $250.

In sum, Obama received nearly 13 times as many contributions as Romney during the period but banked only half again as much cash.

Similar figures for the period from other Milwaukee-area Patch communities show the same pattern, even in conservative strongholds such as Waukesha: Far more contributions for Obama; far larger contributions to Romney.

Related: See coverage of the first presidential debate between Obama and Romney.

It should be carefully noted that while the database goes back to April 2011, Romney became the presumptive GOP candidate only in April 2012, when his last serious challenger, Sen. Rick Santorum, dropped out.

Romney did not gain a mathematically secure edge in delegates until after the Texas primary at the end of May, and was named the official candidate at the Republican National Convention on Aug. 28 – three days before the Elections Commission data ends.

Obama was receiving many small contributions as the sole Democrat long before Romney rose to lead the Republican field and began to garner many individual contributions at all.

Numbers since the presidential election became a two-man race probably would reflect more balanced contributing from Wauwatosa and other metro communities.

___________________________________

* Anyone using the database search for Wauwatosa may note that contributions to Obama appear to total 310, not 309, and to Romney, 26 rather than 24. In each case, the candidates received contributions that had to be refunded. These are noted in parentheses in the database and have been subtracted from the total dollars contributed and the total number of contributions.