Before he dropped out of the presidential race, Cory Booker topped the money list in New Jersey, pulling in twice as much as the next presidential hopeful, Bernie Sanders.
Sowho's best at coaxingmoney from New Jersey residents? And where is that money coming from?
To find out, the Trenton Bureau of the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey combed federal campaign donation records and analyzed harder-to-track small-dollar donors using data from the Center for Responsive Politics through Dec. 31, 2019.
Writing a check to a candidate is one way to gauge whether a person is willing tovote forthe person, especially as more and more Americans make small donations for candidates that who excite them for the first time.
So when it comes to Jersey donors, here's how they rank:
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Cory Booker
How much:$4.6 million
Where it came from:
- Montclair ($198,084)
- Jersey City ($149,273)
- Hoboken ($146,423)
Garden State residents donated the most money to Booker, who dropped out of the race Jan. 13after consistently polling poorly. He accepted$4.6 million from New Jerseyans, or about one-fifth of the$22.2 million he collected through Dec. 31, 2019,according to analysis of Federal Election Commission data from OpenSecrets.org.
"Cory Booker was easy money for New Jersey donors to give," said Matthew Hale, a politicalscience professor at Seton Hall University."If his presidential ambitions paid off, donors would be rewarded.If it didn't, they were loyal supporters of the U.S. senator.So it isn't surprising he led the pack."
Bernie Sanders
How much: $2.3 million
Where it came from:
- Jersey City ($124,283)
- Princeton ($75,353)
- Trenton ($58,237)
Of the candidates still in the running, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is in the lead, bringing in $2.3 million of New Jersey cash, or half that of Booker. Jersey City residents gave him more than any New Jersey city ($124,000), followed by Princeton and Trenton.
But Sanders did collect the most from small-dollar donors, or people who give $200 or less, coming in with $1.1 million.
Collecting lots of small checks—many from people who had never supported a political campaign before—became a sign of broad grassroots appeal, and candidates began boasting of their low average donations.Most of Booker's New Jersey funds, or $3.9 million, came from large-dollar donors in the state giving more than $200.
This top spot echoes the results of a new poll among New Jersey Democrats: Sanders and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg are tied among Garden State liberals, with Sanders at 24% support and Bloomberg at 23% among the 805 adults surveyed in theFairleigh Dickinson University Poll conducted last week.
It's impossible to weigh Bloomberg support by looking at FEC reports in the same way: Bloomberg is not accepting contributions and instead poured at least $400 million of his personal cash into his campaign. He does, however, have a history of donating billions to local, state and federal candidates and causes. Ahandful of New Jersey politicians have endorsed Bloomberg, many after receiving financial help for their campaigns or towns.
Behind Sanders, former Vice President Joe Biden, Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., raised similar sums of New Jersey cash.
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Joe Biden
How much: $1.6 million
Where it came from:
- Princeton ($57,606)
- Montclair ($33,790)
- Jersey City ($33,632)
Biden's most generous donors come from wealthier cities that doled out the most overall to presidential candidates.In the state, Jersey City residents were the most generous to contenders for president, giving out $590,000 this cycle. Princeton ($560,000), Montclair ($492,000), Hoboken ($356,000) and Short Hills ($356,000) followed.
Donald Trump
How much: $1.5 million
Where it came from:
- Saddle River ($38,142)
- Morristown ($31,293)
- Hillsborough ($29,917)
The president has quite the head start on his opponents. While many of the sitting senators running for the Oval Office did transfer money from their Senate campaign chests, Trump began raising money for reelection the day of his inauguration. That gives him an unprecedentedyears-long edge on everyone else.
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Elizabeth Warren
How much: $1.5million
Where it came from:
- Princeton ($93,070)
- Jersey City ($78,284)
- Montclair ($63,693)
After Sanders, Warren was most successful with small-dollar donors, collecting $764,000. Warren has prioritized smaller giving, and pledged not to hold fundraisers for wealthy donors or accept checks of more than $200 from executives at certain tech and financial companies.
"It is a little surprising that Sanders and Warren did as well as they did," Hale said."They are far too progressive for most of New Jersey. But it was early money, and that is often more ideologically driven."
Pete Buttigieg
How much: $1.3million
Where it came from:
- Princeton ($71,584)
- Jersey City ($43,868)
- Hoboken ($38,154)
Jersey cash is just a fraction of the $76million the former South Bend mayor raised in 2019. Buttigieg was the favorite of large-giving New Yorkers, raking in at least $7.2 million from the state, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
"I expect that in the next filing period we will see the moderate candidates like Klobuchar, Biden, Buttigiegwill overtake Sanders and Warren," Hale said.
Amy Klobuchar
How much: $520,000
Where it came from:
- Princeton ($42,829)
- Livingston ($22,961)
- Mendham ($19,041)
Klobuchar's campaign collected the largest amount of cash from Minnesotans she represents in the Senate. In past races, the former county attorney raked in cash from chief executive officers of both parties, and she has jokingly bragged about raising $17,000 from ex-boyfriends during her 2006 Senate run.
Tulsi Gabbard
How much: $329,000
Where it came from:
- Secaucus ($27,966)
- Weehawken ($11,671)
- Alpine ($10,819)
Of the remaining candidates in the race, Gabbard has raised the least amount of money in total. Her top large donors hail from California, New York and Texas.
Candidates will publish what they raised in Januaryon Thursday. The numbers may shift, as Booker dropped out that month, and contenders who do well during debates typically see a windfall of campaign cash.
How we did it
If someone contributes more than $200 to a candidate's campaign, or buys that much of merchandise from the website, the campaign must report the donor's name, address and employment information.
"Small-dollar donors," or checks $200 and below, are harder to track. While campaigns don't have to disclose wherethese small contributions come from, donation collection companies like the Democratic Party favorite ActBlue and the Republicans' WinRed do.
The Center for Responsive Politics analyzed campaign, ActBlue and WinRed filings to determine where New Jersey people (not PACs) threw their monetary support. These numbers do not include donations to independent political groups like super PACs, which can raise and spend unlimited amounts of money as long as they do not work closely with campaigns.
Ashley Balcerzak is a reporter in the New Jersey Statehouse.For unlimited access to her work coveringNew Jersey’s legislature and political power structure,please subscribe or activate your digital account today.
Email:balcerzaka@northjersey.comTwitter:@abalcerzak
