Rudy, Mitt get love, money in River Oaks

This weekend, the Chronicle took a look at the political donation patterns of different areas of Houston — and though there weren't really any surprises, it's interesting to see exactly who's giving how much to whom. The most money, as you might expect, is coming from the neighborhood with the most money: Residents of the 77019 ZIP code, in River Oaks, gave the most political donations of anyone in the Houston area in the first six months of 2007. The total? About $572,000, with Republican candidates Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney the favorites. (Guiliani drew $168,900 from 77019; Romney, $163,850. By comparison, Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama got $68,350 and $50,570, respectively.)

The data is so easy to get thanks in part to the fact that candidates are required to report the names of their donors, the amounts of their donations and their ZIP codes, but mostly because the Internet has made all sorts of information accessible to anyone who wants it. So you can find out that folks in River Oaks don't seem to mind putting their money where their political mouth is — and you can also find out that people in Montrose support Obama a lot more than their counterparts in River Oaks do. But how about something you don't know? In Clear Lake, residents only donated $4,300 in the first part of 2007. That's kind of a surprise, given how much money we think is down there (folks in The Woodlands, by comparison, gave $37,118 — way more than the Clear Lakers, but quite a bit under the $61,183 from Montrose).

You can search the campaign contribution database, courtesy of the Center for Responsive Politics, for yourself at the Chronicle's website, and the Chron has also created a map showing contributions in key ZIP codes. If you want to see how the candidates are doing with overall fund raising, check out the CRP's tally.