Who's Making Bank In SC-02?

When incumbents raise money to run for reelection, they will often turn to individuals outside of their own district, while challengers will tend to focus on local fundraising. I thought it would be interesting to see how much money Joe Wilson and Rob Miller have raised in their home district, since donating even a small amount of money to a political campaign is a strong display of support for that candidate. The Huffington Post has an excellent tool that allows anyone to search for donations to candidates or party organizations by the zip code, town or name of the donor: Fundrace. I decided it would be interesting to pick a few towns in the district at random and see what the numbers said.

Hilton Head Island is a resort town on South Carolina's coastline with a year-round population of about 33,000. Joe Wilson was the clear winner in this town, receiving 47 individual donations totaling $26,126. Rob Miller only pulled in $14,450 from 27 donations.

Barnwell is a heavily African-American city of about 5,000 people near the Georgia border, about 75 miles northwest of the coast. Rob Miller is much more popular here, receiving 10 donations adding up to $7,350, while Joe Wilson got a mere $750 from 3 donors.

Hmmm...maybe the wrong Gaston is in the picture? Gaston, South Carolina, is a suburb of the state capital of Columbia, with a population of about 1,300 and a name that does not lend itself to accurate Google Image searches. Since it's so small, there's not much fundraising data to look at here, just one donation of $500 to Joe Wilson and none at all for Rob Miller.

I'm not sure how much I can really learn by picking only a few towns to study. I did try to pick places that varied in size and location within the district, but I don't know how representative these towns are of the district as a whole. However, it appears to me that Joe Wilson has a significant fundraising advantage within the district, and Rob Miller may have a difficult road ahead of him.