Joe Wilson Received Nearly Twice the Contributions Per Capita from McCain States Over Obama States in Q3 2009

As has been widely reported since the new quarterly fundraising data was released by the FEC late last week, South Carolina Republican Congressman Joe Wilson notched a jaw-dropping $2.69 million in contributions to his 2010 reelection campaign.

Wilson gained recent notoriety in some circles for his “You lie” outburst last September 9th during President Barack Obama’s address to a joint session of Congress on health care reform, but the 5-term Congressman also inspired a groundswell of support from around the country in the form of small and large donor individual contributions for his reelection campaign next year.

A Smart Politics analysis of the nearly 1,200 itemized individual donors who sent Wilson contributions in the third quarter of 2009 finds that states that voted for John McCain in the 2008 presidential election contributed 83 percent more money per capita than those who supported Barack Obama.

McCain states contributed an average of $271.98 per 100,000 residents compared to just $148.45 per 100,000 residents in Obama states. An average of $187.07 per 100,000 residents nationwide sent in large donor ($200+ contributions) to Wilson last quarter.

Even after excluding the $95,300 raised by Wilson in South Carolina, McCain states (at $179.33 per 100,000 residents) still contributed at a 20.8 percent higher rate to Wilson than Obama states (at $148.45).

Overall, Wilson’s itemized large donor funding was up 710 percent from the 2nd quarter of 2009 – from $70,252 to $568,794. While that is a huge boost, it is only a slice of the vast increase he experienced in unitemized (small donor) contributions that poured in from around the country (up 23,004 percent – from $8,945 to $2,066,644).

While the state-by-state details of unitemized contributions are not available through the FEC reports, such information can be gleaned from the big money donors.

Wilson received $311,562 in such funds to his campaign in the 28 states that voted for Barack Obama plus the District of Columbia. The Congressman received $256,182 across the 22 states that voted for John McCain (an additional $1,050 came from U.S. territories and unidentified locales).

Because Obama states have a more than 2:1 population advantage over McCain states, the per capita contributions to Wilson were much higher in the McCain states ($271.98) than the Obama states ($148.45).

· Nearly 17 percent of these funds came from Wilson’s home state of South Carolina, which led the way with the highest net and per capita contributions this quarter ($2,127 per 100,000 residents). At $95,300, that marked a 94 percent increase from the second quarter ($49,001) of this year. Wilson raised just $13,300 from South Carolina residents in itemized individual donations in the first quarter of 2009.

· Another red state, Oklahoma, had the second highest per capita rate of contribution, at $422 per 100,000 residents. The Sooner State tallied $15,375 in large donor contributions during the three-month period.

· Rounding out the top five were two Obama states – Florida, at $347 per 100,000 residents, and Virginia, at $325 – and the District of Columbia, at $312.

Virginia and D.C. were two of the few places from which Wilson received out-of-state contributions during the first two quarters of the year, when he was a largely anonymous Congressman around most of the country. Wilson received 31 percent of the $47,151 he tallied in large donor out-of-state individual contributions from January through June of 2009 in Virginia ($14,850). Another $11,550 came from California (24.5 percent) and $8,201 from D.C (17.4 percent) during that six-month period.

In absolute dollars, the leading contributors to the Wilson campaign in the third quarter of this year were South Carolina ($95,300), Texas ($72,449), California ($66,070), Florida ($63,750), Virginia ($25,300), and Pennsylvania ($20,200). Overall, 60.3 percent of Wilson’s large donor contributions poured in from these six states.

But Wilson’s comments did not mobilize many large donors in some corners of the United States. In fact, no resident of Hawaii or Vermont gave Wilson any contributions of $200 or more in the third quarter – the only two states that failed to do so.

North and South Dakota were the two McCain states apparently least enamored by Wilson and his outburst at the President – ranking #47 and #48 in per capita contributions to his campaign. Only one contribution of $250 came in from each of these Upper Midwestern states.

In an interesting development, special interest PAC money was actually down for Wilson in the 3rd quarter by nearly half from the previous quarter – from $109,500 to $58,000. Whether or not Wilson’s controversial comment last month is scaring off organizational money in the long term remains to be seen in future fundraising cycles.

Itemized Individual Contributions to Joe Wilson by State, Q3 2009

Rank	State	Amount	%	Per 100,000	2008 vote
1	South Carolina	$95,300	16.75	$2,127.33	McCain
2	Oklahoma	$15,375	2.70	$422.12	McCain
3	Florida	$63,750	11.21	$347.82	Obama
4	Virginia	$25,300	4.45	$325.65	Obama
5	District of Columbia	$1,850	0.33	$312.59	Obama
6	Texas	$72,449	12.74	$297.81	McCain
7	Nevada	$6,800	1.20	$261.52	Obama
8	Arizona	$15,901	2.80	$244.62	McCain
9	Delaware	$2,000	0.35	$229.07	Obama
10	Louisiana	$8,850	1.56	$200.64	McCain
11	New Mexico	$3,800	0.67	$191.50	Obama
12	Wyoming	$1,000	0.18	$187.73	McCain
13	Alaska	$1,250	0.22	$182.14	McCain
14	Colorado	$8,936	1.57	$180.90	Obama
15	Montana	$1,750	0.31	$180.89	McCain
16	Idaho	$2,750	0.48	$180.47	McCain
17	California	$66,070	11.62	$179.75	Obama
18	New Hampshire	$2,250	0.40	$171.00	Obama
19	Pennsylvania	$20,200	3.55	$162.27	Obama
20	Ohio	$17,700	3.11	$154.10	Obama
21	West Virginia	$2,750	0.48	$151.56	McCain
22	Maryland	$8,000	1.41	$142.01	Obama
23	Tennessee	$8,100	1.42	$130.33	McCain
24	New Jersey	$10,506	1.85	$121.00	Obama
25	Minnesota	$6,300	1.11	$120.68	Obama
26	Kansas	$3,300	0.58	$117.77	McCain
27	Washington	$7,450	1.31	$113.75	Obama
28	Illinois	$14,100	2.48	$109.29	Obama
29	Alabama	$4,856	0.85	$104.16	McCain
30	Connecticut	$3,550	0.62	$101.39	Obama
31	Rhode Island	$1,000	0.18	$95.17	Obama
32	Iowa	$2,800	0.49	$93.25	Obama
33	Utah	$2,500	0.44	$91.36	McCain
34	North Carolina	$7,800	1.37	$84.58	Obama
35	Nebraska	$1,500	0.26	$84.11	McCain
36	Georgia	$8,000	1.41	$82.60	McCain
37	Missouri	$4,550	0.80	$76.97	McCain
38	Wisconsin	$4,250	0.75	$75.52	Obama
39	New York	$13,900	2.44	$71.32	Obama
40	Massachusetts	$4,050	0.71	$62.33	Obama
41	Arkansas	$1,751	0.31	$61.32	McCain
42	Maine	$800	0.14	$60.77	Obama
43	Kentucky	$2,300	0.40	$53.87	McCain
44	Mississippi	$1,450	0.25	$49.34	McCain
45	Michigan	$4,500	0.79	$44.98	Obama
46	Indiana	$2,750	0.48	$43.13	Obama
47	North Dakota	$250	0.04	$38.97	McCain
48	South Dakota	$250	0.04	$31.09	McCain
49	Oregon	$1,150	0.20	$30.34	Obama
50	Hawaii	$0	0.00	$0.00	Obama
50	Vermont	$0	0.00	$0.00	Obama
	Other	$1,050	0.18
	Total	$568,794	100.0	$187.07

Per capita data based on 2008 U.S. Census population estimates. FEC data compiled by Smart Politics.

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