With election day three months away, and only two months until the first presidential debate, which will be held at the University of Denver, the candidates are visiting the Centennial State a bit more. Last week, it was the presumptive Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, who visited Golden. This week, President Barack Obama plans to stop in Denver, Colorado Springs, Pueblo, and Grand Junction. 

It's no wonder that, according to a recent Associated Press report, Colorado is on a short list of nine states in which the two campaigns are spending their advertising dollars. Residents of Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Florida have already seen $350 million in commercials, according to the news report. 

But who is donating to the campaigns and how does it compare to the last presidential election cycle? In Colorado, the breakdown of campaign contributions looks like this. As of the end of June—the most recent statistics available from the Federal Election Commission—Coloradans had donated $3,311,711 to the 2012 Obama campaign. The biggest chunk of that money—$1,046,123—came from residents whose zip codes start with 802. Residents of 803 and 801 zips contributed $559,252 and $362,908, respectively.

During the same time frame, Coloradans contributed $3,898,060 to Republicans, $2,403,133 of which went to Romney. (The rest was donated to other Republicans who ran in the primaries.) The largest amount of money donated to Republicans came from residents of the 801 zip code; they donated $1,152,552. The next highest amount came from 802: $766,755. 

By way of comparison, during the 2008 election cycle, Coloradans contributed a whopping $14. 1 million to Democrats and only $5.9 million to Republicans. And so it appears, at least this far in the election cycle, that Obama and the Democrats may not enjoy the same dramatic advantage in fundraising that they did the last time around. Whether that means voters have changed their minds or perhaps aren't as energized and thus not opening their pocketbooks is anyone's guess. 

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