How Much Have Your Neighbors Given to Obama, Romney?
Berkley and Huntington Woods residents have donated more than $70,000 to President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney, according to an interactive database of campaign contributions from the Federal Election Commission.
- By Don Wyatt
- Email the author
- September 25, 2012
This election cycle, Berkley and Huntington Woods residents are giving President Barack Obama vastly more contributions than they are to Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
According to Federal Election Commission records, Huntington Woods residents have made 22 donations of $1,000 or more to both presidential campaigns. Of those, six were checks to Romney, including four contributions greater than $2,400. Obama received 16 contributions of at least $1,000, including eight contributions greater than $2,400. In total, Huntington Woods residents have contributed $66,340.95 to the candidates.
One Berkley resident made a donation of $1,000 or more, which went to Romney, the Federal Election Commission reports. In total, Berkley residents have given $4,829 to the candidates.
Of the 234 campaign contributions reported from Huntington Woods residents since May 2011, Obama has received 220 donations versus 14 donations to Romney. During the same time period, Berklely residents gave 63 contributions, 59 of them to Obama and 4 to Romney, according to the Federal Election Commission.
All this information and more can be found in an interactive database from Patch so you can see how much your Berkley and Huntington Woods neighbors have donated to the various presidential campaigns — and to which candidate they’re writing their checks.
We’ve also included records for many communities across southeastern Michigan, so if you want to see who from Rochester or Brighton contributed to campaigns, go right ahead. You can search by candidate, contributor, city, ZIP code and amount contributed.
It's important to note that while a vote for a candidate is secret, a donation to a campaign is public record and open to public scrutiny. Federal election law requires campaigns to regularly report donations and contributors. The information in the database was downloaded from the Federal Election Commission’s website. The data is based on quarterly reports and is current through July. The FEC data will be updated in mid-October. We'll update this database when new information is available.
Jeff Stocki
2:18 pm on Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Great idea. Let's really get people riled up about who their neighbor is choosing to support financially, I'm sure that will bring us all much closer together as friends and neighbors.
Sorry, but there's a big difference in my mind between advertising your support by putting a sign or bumper sticker up and making a donation in the privacy of your own home. Yes, I realize that our politicians, in their infinite wisdom, have chosen to make this information public but that doesn't mean Patch needs to put up a database search tool so any busybody looking for an argument can find someone to pick a fight with.
Lynn Vander Meer
2:18 pm on Tuesday, September 25, 2012
My friends and neighbors are free to donate to any candidate that they choose to support. It's not for me to be scrutinizing their donation habits. I'm sure they have a good reason to support THEIR candidate. I respect other people's rights and I expect my rights to be respected too. This is still America. We need to be working together, and finding our common ground rather than our differences.