I t was a bear market last month in terms of Wall Street’s investment in the presidential race — candidates and super PACs alike.

OpenSecrets.org data shows that both the Mitt Romney campaign and Restore Our Future, the super PAC that is backing him, have seen significant drops in contributions from the securities and investment industry. Overall, the GOP candidate’s campaign has received about $8.5 million from the industry, with more than $400,000 per month in January and February, and a spike to $827,000 in March. But contributions from the industry fell by two-thirds in April — to a paltry $271,000.

Romney has consistently collected far more money from Wall Street than Barack Obama, and Restore Our Future has relied on it as a rich source of funding. In fact, the campaign counts the securities and investments industry (which includes both big investment banks, like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley , and hedge funds like Clarium Capital and Citadel Investment) as the second largest source of campaign contributions — second only to “retirees,” a catch-all classification that also tops the list of industries giving to the Obama campaign.

The industry is only the fifth-most generous to Barack Obama’s campaign, which has never come close to matching Romney’s totals in this realm. Trying to close the gap, the president made very public appeals in the past several months for more support from the industry — to little avail . After receiving $258,000 from Wall Street in February, the Obama campaign collected just $198,000 in March, and even less from the industry in April — $166,000.

And it’s not simply a case of the money turning to super PACs. As we’ve documented before , securities and investments remains the number one industry giving to those committees — but in the month of April, super PACs, too, saw a decline in donations from Wall Street. In March, the securities and investment industry gave more than $5.2 million to super PACs, but in April, it gave just $1.8 million — a 65 percent decline in spending.

Nearly all of that greatly reduced pot of money — $1.5 million — ended up with Restore Our Future. But that’s still a steep decline from the month of March, when the outside spending group picked up $2.9 million from the securities and investment industry. According to OpenSecrets.org analysis, Priorities USA received just $50,000 from individuals or organizations in the securities and investments industry.

So who’s up? The real estate industry vaulted to the front of the super PAC donor line this month — going from the eighth-largest super PAC donor in March, with $980,000 in contributions, to number one in April, with $1.9 million. The industry, which includes groups like the National Association of Realtors and Crow Holdings, avoided the presidential race almost entirely — Priorities USA reported no contributions from real estate, and Restore Our Future picked up just $47,000, a far cry from the $752,000 the industry donated in March. Instead of signing on to support a presidential candidate, the real estate industry rose to super PAC prominence last month largely through the actions of the the National Association of Realtors — the group donated $1.8 million to its own super PAC.

Image: Douglas Brown, Flickr



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About The Author Russ joined the Center in March 2012 as the money-in-politics reporter. His duties include reporting for OpenSecrets Blog and assisting with press inquiries. Russ has a background in investigative journalism, having worked as a reporter for the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University, and he spent five years as a newspaper reporter in New Hampshire. He has a degree in political science from Muhlenberg College and a M.A. in journalism and public affairs from American University. Follow Russ Choma

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