So over time individual Utahns have gotten used to not giving to political races — mainly because no one is asking them for money, Taylor said. And that attitude is reflected in little giving to federal races, as well.

"At the very most basic grass-roots level, you don't have people giving to individual fundraising," said Taylor. And there is much ignorance in political giving, as well.

"One thing we find fairly regularly is that (possible donors) don't even know the most basic things — who to make the check out to, how much to give, is it too much, too little," he said. "(Donors see newspaper) articles where candidates are getting $5,000 and $10,000 a pop and they think $5 and $10 donations don't matter when in fact small donations do matter a great deal and are actually desired by candidates."

Romney, the erstwhile presidential candidate who headed the 2002 Winter Olympics Games in Salt Lake City and is an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, was a fundraising powerhouse in Utah.

He took 55 cents of every Utah dollar that went to federal races or causes. In a distant second place was Hillary Clinton, who took 4 cents of every dollar. Barack Obama was close behind her at 3.8 cents. Presumptive GOP nominee John McCain took only 1.9 cents of every dollar here.

Among other notable groups, the National Republican Senatorial Committee took 2 cents of every $1 in Utah donations; the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee took 1.8 cents; taking about 1.6 cents each were the Republican National Committee, Rudy Giuliani and 3rd Congressional District candidate David Leavitt, although about one-fifth of Leavitt's money came from his own pocket.

Utahns gave at least some money to 404 different federal candidates, party groups and PACs.

Somewhat ironically, Utah's incumbent members of Congress were relatively far down the list of top recipients of Utah money.

For example, Rep. Chris Cannon, R-Utah, was on the bottom half of the list at No. 233, receiving only 0.01 cents of every $1 donated by Utahns — far behind his GOP challengers of Leavitt at No. 10 and Jason Chaffetz at No. 27 (0.4 cents of every dollar).

Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, was No. 19 (0.7 cents of every $1 donated by Utahns); Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, was No. 20 (0.6 cents); Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, was No. 23 (.46 cents); and Sen. Bob Bennett, R-Utah, was No. 31 (0.3 cents). Bennett and Hatch do not face election this year. The others do.

Some familiar names, at least to political observers, top the list of biggest individual donors to federal causes and candidates.