Top '08 GOP donor areas shut wallets

Judging from fundraising numbers, Newport Beach needs a shakedown.

The wealthy Southern California enclave — a gold mine for Republican presidential candidates in 2008 — is giving dramatically less than it did four years ago. But it’s not the only place that’s dried up for the GOP.


Some of the most affluent communities across the country aren’t donating as generously to Republican presidential candidates as they did four years ago, a function of the recession — which struck between election cycles — and a primary schedule that pushed back the dates of several key donor states.

The GOP race’s volatility also depressed the numbers, fundraisers said, which don’t include giving to super PACs, the unlimited money vehicles that have reshaped American politics. In general, itemized contributions to Republican presidential candidates stand 30 percent below 2008 levels.

Below, POLITICO breaks out five of the steepest fundraising declines on the GOP’s money map.

Newport Beach

This time last cycle, ZIP codes starting with 926 — roughly, a strip running from San Juan Capistrano to Huntington Beach — raised about $4.25 million for GOP White House hopefuls. This year, the number’s only about half that sum: $2.3 million.

Adam Probolsky, an unaligned Southern California pollster who supported Mitt Romney in 2008, chalked the difference up to economics: “[2008] was a unique moment in time with the housing market booming,” he said, “We were flying around on our buddies’ jets going back and forth to Boston raising money. It was a very different world — you know, an ‘everybody-thought-they-were-rich’ kind of world.”

California’s schedule makes a difference, too, said Tom Ross, political director at New Majority, a California Republican group that raises money for philosophically aligned candidates and issues. Ross said he expects Orange County contributions to rise with the approach of the state’s June primary, which in 2008 was held in February.

Newport was a big fan of Romney ($1.4 million) and Rudy Giuliani ($1.2 million) last cycle.

The region has gone to bat for Romney again this cycle, contributing more than $1.4 million to the former Massachusetts governor’s campaign. But even before Romney wrapped up the nomination, no one else was having much luck here: Neither Ron Paul nor Newt Gingrich managed to hit $200,000 and Rick Santorum barely cleared $100,000.

Phoenix and Scottsdale, Ariz.

Even factoring in the absence of Arizona Sen. John McCain from this year’s race, the Phoenix-Scotts- dale-Mesa crescent isn’t punching its weight. This time last cycle, Arizona’s elite had already made good on some $5.4 million. That number’s just $2.4 million now.

Romney’s off his mark — he undershot his 2008 totals by $150,000 through February, when the race was still competitive. Paul, at that point, was running about 20 percent below 2008 levels.

Part of the reason is the economy. Phoenix home values stand a little below half their December 2007 levels, according to Zillow.com, a real estate website that tracks home sales.

“A lot of the high-dollar contributors have made their money in some kind of real estate capacity,” said Chip Scutari, a Phoenix-based Republican consultant. “So that pool of money has significantly dwindled since the 2008 presidential campaign.”

Palm Beach County, Fla.

Florida’s Palm Beach County ranks among the giants of presidential finance, but it’s taken a tumble this cycle.

Itemized receipts from the ZIP codes that make up Palm Beach County — a cluster of communities that includes wealth centers like West Palm Beach and Boca Raton — have fallen more than 30 percent this cycle, from $3.75 million in 2008 to $2.5 million.

The county is still home to the GOP’s single most-lucrative ZIP code of 2012 — that’s 33480, which has given $930,000 through March — but the county’s 2012 totals pale in comparison to 2008.

That year, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani took in close to $1.4 million from the many New York expats in Palm Beach County before flaming out in Florida’s primary.

Florida fundraisers said donors kept their wallets close during the back-and-forth of this winter’s primaries. The economy didn’t help here either — March home values in Palm Beach County stood 57 percent below pre-recession highs.

Washington, D.C.

You can read establishment hesitance about the Republican field in the totals from the nation’s capital.

In 2008, checks from ZIP codes beginning with 200 ran to more than $2.4 million through March of that year. This time, giving has cratered, falling by half. The drop is steepest in affluent Northwest D.C. Giving has slumped almost $230,000 from the Georgetown/Foxhall section of the city. It’s down an additional $210,000 in 20016, the part of the city that includes the Palisades and American University. Dupont Circle, which gave more than $150,000 to the field in 2008, has offered just $50,000 this time.

Washington fields a set of donors more strategic than most, area bundlers said, so the stalling effects of the back-and-forth GOP primary were keenly felt here.

Salt Lake City, Utah

Blowout fundraising from Salt Lake City seemed like a certainty with Romney and Jon Huntsman duking it out for the Republican Party’s presidential nod.

But despite the presence of two Mormon candidates with deep Utah ties — Romney saved the city’s Olympics; Huntsman served as governor — giving from ZIP codes beginning with 840 and 841, a region that runs from the city’s core to the Park City slopes, is off by one-third this cycle. Checks from the area ran to $3.25 million through March, down from $4.9 million the cycle before.

Area fundraisers said the recession tightened belts around Salt Lake — long a B-list destination for national fundraising — and that the city’s 2008 performance, in part driven by Romney’s historic Mormon candidacy, was almost impossible to beat.

“[2008] blew everyone out of the water,” said one longtime Republican operative in Salt Lake City. “I looked at that number and said, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me.’ I didn’t think there was that much money there.”