Barack Obama received donations from more than 552,000 people during the first major fundraising period of the 2012 presidential campaign. But as ABC News’ Jake Tapper noted, “it was 244 bundlers — his most wealthy and well-connected fundraisers, such as Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour and DreamWorks CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg — who really brought home the bacon.”
Approximately 40 percent of the money raised came from these big-dollar bundlers. And predictably, the bundlers disproportionately represent certain geographical regions.
It’s impossible to precisely parse the breakdown (the Obama campaign only provided tiers of donors and dollar ranges), but if one uses the midpoint of the dollar range — (for example, if one assumes a bundler in the 50,000-100,000 range gave 75,000) — then it appears that nearly a quarter of dollars raised came from bundlers in just one state — California.
What is more, about 60 percent of the bundler dollars came from just five blue states: California, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois, Maryland — and Washington, DC.
Also worth noting: Of the first four primary states, only New Hampshire had a bundler (no Iowa, Nevada, or South Carolina). There were several bundlers from Austin, Texas. The swing state of Ohio had just one bundler. And Obama’s home state of Hawaii had zero representation.