San Juan Capistrano Voters Give Over the Top to Democratic Presidential Campaigns

Donors in San Juan Capistrano opened up their pocket books and gave big to their favorite presidential candidates this campaign season. Some even went beyond the donor limits.

Voters in 12 states take to the polls on Super Tuesday, March 1, to cast their ballots for the presidential nomination in each party, and if campaign contributions are any indication of appeal, Hillary Clinton should be a big winner on the democratic side.

While the California primary isn’t until June, several of your neighbors have already shelled out big bucks in support of their favored democratic candidate (Patch will examine Republican donor spending next week).

In San Juan Capistrano, Clinton has four big spenders who contributed $2,700, the maximum an individual can donate to a campaign allowed under federal law. One even went well over the limit, giving $4,700. Over donating is not uncommon. Campaigns typically refund the excessive donations. Presumably, San Juan Capistrano’s Mike Levin has a refund coming his way.

People who gave the maximum allowed in San Juan Capistrano are:

• Joy Berus
• Robert Berman
• Robin Preiss Glasser
• Mike Levin

About 22 San Juan Capistrano residents donated to her campaign. Overall, she has 1526 donors who gave a collective $699,079 in South County cities.

Her Rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has one big money donor in the area, a donor so enthusiastic, he tried to give double the spending limit. Don McCanne tried to donate 5,400 to Sanders. Due to the campaign spending limit, the Sanders refunded $2,700 to McCanne.

Overall, in San Juan Capistrano, Sanders has about 61 donors.

Californian’s have given $28,562,022 to Democratic candidates and $18,789,272 to Republicans.

Clinton has received $21,899,489 so far in campaign donations from people in the state, according to publicly available contribution data from the Federal Election Commission.

Sanders, has raised $$6,109,590 in California.

That’s somewhat in line with nationwide numbers that show Clinton with $126.4 million in individual contributions compared to $95.4 million for Sanders.

Those numbers, though, are a bit misleading.

While Clinton’s campaign has raised big bucks from individuals, she’s also been helped by massive money pouring in through Priorities USA Action, a pro-Clinton Super PAC that has raised more than $50 million in support of the former Secretary of State, according to OpenSecrets.

Sanders has raised just $44,968 from outside groups, according to OpenSecrets.

Following voting in three states, Clinton leads Sanders in pledged delegates, 52 to 51. But Clinton holds a commanding lead over the Vermont Sen. in the race for the nomination overall with the support of 445 superdelegates compared to just 18 superdelegates for Sanders.