Republican Mitt Romney relied on the finance, insurance and real estate sector for roughly $2 out of every $11 he raised during the fourth quarter of 2011, according to a new analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics of campaign finance documents submitted Tuesday to the Federal Election Commission.

These interests doled out more than $4.3 million to Romney in the final three months of the year, a period during which Romney raised about $24 million. As of the end of December, Romney has now collected a total of $12.2 million from the people and political action committees within the finance, insurance and real estate sector — or about 22 percent of the $56 million he has raised.

People associated with the securities and investment industry have been particularly generous, contributing nearly $6 million to Romney’s campaign coffers, according to the Center’s research. That includes more than $2.1 million given during the fourth quarter.

Romney saw a surge of support from hedge funds in particular during the fourth quarter. Hedge fund employees gave Romney $353,900 between October and December — a nearly 450 percent increase above what they gave during the third quarter of 2011.

Commercial banks, too, have been loyal backers of the former Bain Capital executive. Through the end of December, PACs and individuals in that industry donated $1.15 million to Romney, including about $608,000 during the fourth quarter.

No other presidential candidate has collected more money from these financial sector interests, and employees of the country’s most elite financial institutions are all increasingly betting on Romney’s success.

People associated with Goldman Sachs have donated nearly eight times as much money to Romney as they have to President Barack Obama: $496,400 versus $64,200, according to the Center’s research. No other organization has given more to Romney’s presidential campaign.

During the fourth quarter alone, Goldman Sachs employees favored Romney at a rate of 10:1, or $126,730 for Romney versus $12,100 for Obama.

A similar trend applies to people associated with Citigroup Inc. (six-and-a-half times more to Romney), JPMorgan Chase & Co. (five-and-a-half times more to Romney), Morgan Stanley (five-and-a-half times more to Romney), Bank of America (four times more to Romney) and Wells Fargo (nearly three times more to Romney).

Strikingly, during the fourth quarter, people associated with Citigroup donated $210,000 to Romney, while giving Obama just $3,750, according to the Center’s research.

Romney’s Bain advantage also increased during the fourth quarter: People associated with his two former firms, Bain Capital and Bain & Co., donated $69,500 and $62,550, respectively, to Romney’s campaign. (During the same time, they donated just $12,500 and $7,000, respectively, to Obama.)

Obama was far more popular with individuals in the tech industry, in the legal field and in Hollywood during the fourth quarter of 2011, as well as small-dollar donors, who accounted for more than 43 percent of the money he raised between October and December.

During that period, Obama collected nearly $1.6 million from the legal sector, according to the Center’s research, bringing his total receipts from that realm to more than $5.8 million. (That’s nearly twice the $3 million Romney collected from such interests in 2011.)

Obama also brought in nearly $1.7 million from the computers and Internet industry during 2011, including about $342,000 during the fourth quarter. And he raised more than $1.2 million from people associated with the TV, music and movie industry last year, with more than $176,000 coming from October through December.

Through the end of 2011, Obama raised $139,000 from employees of Google — with $43,450 coming during the fourth quarter alone. That was more campaign cash than any GOP presidential hopeful received from the search engine giant, and enough to rank Google as his No. 3 overall backer.

Obama was also the favored candidate of employees of Apple and Microsoft, which ranks as his No. 1 overall supporter.

Last year, Obama collected $36,300 from those on Apple’s payroll and more than $188,600 from Microsoft employees. Romney meanwhile has not received a dime from Apple employees, and Microsoft employees have given him just $40,500 — although he did out-raise Obama during the fourth quarter, $28,000 versus $17,000.

Notably, there’s one interest group that has given almost equally to both Obama and Romney: health insurers.

In 2011, people in the health insurance industry donated about $142,000 to Obama and $167,650 to Romney. No other candidate in the presidential race collected more than $25,000 from these interests last year.

Center for Responsive Politics senior researcher Douglas Weber contributed to this report.



For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics.For permission to reprint for commercial uses, such as textbooks, contact the Center: [email protected]

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