Fairfield ranked 7th for 2012 presidential donations

Fairfield County ranked seventh in the country for the amount of individual campaign contributions during the 2012 presidential campaign, according to a recent study by the Sunlight Foundation.

The foundation”™s study, “Political Influence by County,” showed individual contributors in Fairfield donated a combined $51.9 million to candidates and political action committees, or PACs. Among several interactive maps as part of the study, Fairfield was shown to have donated $55.65 per capita to candidates and PACs.

The study also showed that Fairfield donated $8.4 million for the Republican presidential campaign as opposed to $2.7 million for the Democratic campaign.

The study found that Fairfield and the nine other counties in the top 10 accounted for 30 percent of all individual contributions during the campaign. All of the communities were in urban metro areas.

New York County and Washington, D.C. ranked first and second, respectively. Rounding out the top 10 were Los Angeles County, Cook County (Ill.), Clark County (Nev.), Harris County (Texas), Middlesex County (Mass.) and Palm Beach County (Fla.).

Neighboring Westchester County, N.Y. donated $35.8 million. New Haven and Litchfield counties donated $5.9 million and $4.2 million, respectively.