Who Is Winning Rural Hearts, Minds and Dollars??

[illinoisprogressive]

In what has to be a discouraging picture for the Republican National Committee, not to mention a handful of presidential campaigns, the big winner in the money race in rural America is a bit of a surprise, reports the Daily Yonder:

A black Democrat who lives on the South Side of Chicago received the most money from rural Americans of any of the candidates running for president. In the second quarter of this year, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama collected $861,646 in donations from people living in rural communities, more than any other candidate — and he received donations from more rural Americans living in a wider variety of places than competitors in either party, according to a Daily Yonder analysis of campaign contributions.

Granted, the kind of money rural areas are coughing up for the presidential campaigns is dwarfed by what’s coming out of the cities. In the last quarter news outlets reported around five percent of donations came from rural America. But Obama leads all candidates, including the Arizonan John McCain, the North Carolinian John Edwards, and New Mexico’s Bill Richardson. He outraised Hillary Clinton by $100K, but also had almost double the number of contributors as she. And among Republicans?

The only candidate to come close to Obama’s totals from rural America was former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who continued to plow up money from ski counties in Utah, where he headed the 2002 Winter Olympics. Still, Romney had fewer donors and donations than Obama. Romney received contributions from people living in 777 rural counties out of a total of 2, 580. Obama had contributors in 888 rural counties.

http://www.newwest.net/topic/article/whos_winning_rural_hearts_and_minds_and_dollars/C37/L37/

[RaleighNCDUer]

1. Obama got 888; Romney got 777 --

I'm almost afraid to ask who got 666...