The red, the blue and the green

It’s too soon to tell who will win Virginia’s closely watched race for governor. But, thanks to the Virginia Public Access Project (www.vpap.org), it’s easier than ever to tell where individuals and businesses in your community are placing their bets.

VPAP, the nonpartisan, nonprofit tracker of money in politics, has distilled campaign finance data from all three statewide races into color-coded maps to illustrate how the candidates are doing raising money in each region and each ZIP code of the state.

It should come as no surprise that gubernatorial candidates Ken Cuccinelli and Terry McAuliffe are raising most of their in-state money from Virginia’s population centers and affluent areas. Together, Cuccinelli and McAuliffe have raised more than $745,000 from ZIP codes inside the Capital Beltway (McAuliffe’s home turf) and more than $1.1 million from ZIP codes in the rest of Northern Virginia (Cuccinelli’s back yard) through June 30. Another $885,000 has come from the Richmond region.

The splotches of red and blue are fewer and farther between in Southwest and Southside Virginia. The candidates have raised about $256,000 from ZIP codes in the Roanoke and New River Valleys. Cuccinelli himself has raised nearly $200,000 in this region, but $126,000 came from a single donor — Roanoke’s Lynn Via. McAuliffe has fared better than Cuccinelli in the New River Valley, especially in Montgomery County.

Of course, Cuccinelli and McAuliffe aren’t confining their dash for cash to Virginia. Both have raised millions from outside the state, relying heavily on support from partisan political committees in Washington, D.C. McAuliffe has received more campaign money from Beverly Hills than from any single ZIP code in Virginia.

But the VPAP maps are a useful tool to help examine the influence of money on elections. In shades of red and blue, they provide an easy-to-read picture of where candidates are finding their green.

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