Minnesota’s big-dollar donors to presidential candidates

WASHINGTON — Between January and March, the heart of the Republican presidential nomination contest, the final four Republican candidates together raised about $310,000 from big-dollar donors in Minnesota, according to the latest round of fundraising reports collected by the Federal Election Commission.

President Obama’s re-election campaign, meanwhile, brought in nearly $425,000 from those who gave more than $500.

Among Republicans, the presumptive nominee Mitt Romney raised $124,500 from this pool of donors, by far the most in the state. Ron Paul and Rick Santorum (who has since dropped out of the race) both raised around $81,000 and Newt Gingrich brought in only about $20,800.

Romney’s big donors gave, on average, the most to their candidate ($1,946), followed closely by Obama donors ($1,849). Ron Paul’s biggest donors give comparatively little — their average donation was $1,015. 

So, who was giving to whom?

A MinnPost breakdown of the FEC data showed that Obama got two big checks from two major Native American tribes, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and the Fond Du Lac Band Of Lake Superior Chippewa, who cut him $10,000 and $5,000 checks respectively. Five Pohlads, of Minnesota Twins fame, gave a total of $25,000 to Obama, too.

Only eight people gave the maximum $5,000 to Mitt Romney during the first quarter, among them, David Homer, a senior vice president at General Mills and the president of General Mills Canada. Rick Santorum got $5,000 total from Republican mega-donors Robert and Joan Cummins.

Collectively, Minnesotans have now donated more than $3 million to presidential candidates, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Obama and former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty are still the only ones to have broken $1 million in the state.

Devin Henry can be reached at dhenry@minnpost.com. Follow him on Twitter: @dhenry