Rocky's past donors watching, waiting

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, a Democrat, has endorsed only one mayoral candidate to replace him: former City Council member Keith Christensen, a Republican.

But the mayor's approval has not translated into overwhelming financial support from the people who were the biggest donors to the mayor's last campaign, a computer-aided analysis of all campaign giving by the Deseret Morning News shows.

In fact, about two of every three donors who gave Anderson at least $1,000 in his last campaign have not given to any candidate so far this year — leaving a large, open field to be tapped.

Among the third of Anderson supporters who have given some, however, Christensen is getting the biggest slice of their money in the crowded field of candidates — 59 percent of it, or $110,650, from that group.

Christensen said he did not specifically look at Anderson's donation lists and hit up those people for campaign cash. "I have not focused fund raising on one area," said Christensen, who is far ahead in overall campaign cash raised.

Christensen does look at who is giving to the other candidates this year and has a general idea who is giving to two or more campaigns — which he finds more amusing than troubling.

"Yeah, you've got to love that" idea of pushing cash around into different campaigns, Christensen jokes. "There are a number of people out there straddling the fence."

Several candidates not endorsed by the sitting mayor are also receiving significant but lesser amounts from those old Rocky donors. For example, Jenny Wilson received $30,272 from them; Dave Buhler received $25,975 and Ralph Becker $19,668.

The donors who gave $1,000 or more to Anderson in his last race directed $595,678 into his campaign coffers four years ago. The same group this year has donated only $188,565 so far this year.

Interestingly, a number of donors who are giving to Christensen this year are actually giving him more than they gave to Anderson.

The difference appears to come from the fact that Anderson is a Democrat and Christensen is a Republican. And even though the race is officially non-partisan, the analysis shows that Democrats who gave to Anderson are less likely to give to Christensen.

And Republicans who may have given half-heartedly to Anderson in 2003 are gladly opening their checkbooks to their fellow Republican Christensen this time around.

For example: