Houston's cash goes to the right place

Sunday's Chronicle had an interesting little feature about which presidential hopefuls are receiving cash from the Houston area, and how much they are getting. The article notes that residents of River Oaks, the "wealthiest neighborhood in Texas," have so far made a half million dollars worth of political contributions. The two biggest recipients have been Giuliani and Romney, who have each received ~$160-170 thousand. (In Texas, only Highland Park has given more presidential cash.)

Both of those candidates actually received more from Memorial area residents (nearly $335 thousand between the two of them), though that area's overal contributions were just shy of River Oaks'. Montrose - probably Houston's most demographically diverse district (and gay epicenter) - is leading the city in contributions to Dems, with Barack taking the biggest prize there.

I went to opensecrets.com to find out how Friendswood has donated so far. Bewilderingly, Democratic candidates have taken the lion's share of residents' cash here, with Hilary raking in a cool eleven grand, almost 40% of all donations. Then again, one family alone (Buzbee) gave her $9,200 (as well as $4,600 to Edwards). Then again... again, only 18 families have even made contributions, so this sample size sucks ass.

Let's try the old school, the 3-2-5, zip code 76903. That's right, I'm talking about the east side of the SJT.

This is more like it; we've got good ol' Mr. Mertz - cattleman, CPA, board member of just about everything, and stalwart parishioner of Sacred Heart Cathedral - leading the way with $2,300 to McCain. Big bucks get thrown around in San Angelo.

Try your own zip code - it's fun!