Candidates Find Cash in California

[Omaha Steve]

Source: Associated Press

Candidates Find Cash in California
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Apr 16, 8:24 PM (ET)

By JIM KUHNHENN

WASHINGTON (AP) - For presidential candidates, home may be where the heart is, yet the wealth is in California. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rudy Giuliani raised most of their money in New York. Illinois gave plenty to Barack Obama. North Carolina came through for John Edwards.

But the biggest donor state in the first quarter of presidential fundraising was California, typically the cash machine of presidential politics. California is now an early primary state - on Feb. 5 - and that could push the state's financial role to stratospheric levels.


Democratic presidential hopeful, U.S. Sen., Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y. speaks at a campaign event in a high school gym in Hampton, N.H., Saturday, April 14, 2007.(AP Photo/Jim Cole)


"We'll see an increased presence of the candidates in California and that is likely to drive the type of small donor activity that candidates are starting to do," said Anthony Corrado, a campaign money expert at Colby College in Maine.

In the first quarter, Californians contributed about $20 million to leading presidential candidates, with Democrats holding a 3-to-2 edge over Republicans, according to an analysis of fundraising data by The Associated Press.

Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20070417/D8OI17U82.html