February 09, 2008 11:48 pm
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By Andy Ostmeyer
aostmeyer@joplinglobe.com
There was an old saying among land speculators in the latter half of the 19th Century: Rain follows the plow.
Divide up the semi-arid and even arid regions into 160-acre farms for homesteaders and let them plant water-sucking crops such as corn and the needed rain, somehow, would magically follow. The result was to be a garden in the high, dry plains and deserts of the American West.
Of course, it was never going to happen and many a homesteader gave up and simply abandoned their dream. The hulls of more than a few of their empty houses still can be seen.
On Tuesday night, as I watched election results pour in, I wondered if an adage I’d come to believe in my time — that a political reign naturally follows after the ground is plowed with money — might be just as bogus.
Earlier that day I jumped over to the Federal Election Commission Web site to see where the money was coming from in Missouri.
Overwhelmingly, Mitt Romney was getting the support of the state’s Republican donors. Romney had received $842,240 in campaign contributions from Missouri residents, far more than any other candidate who was still in the race. John McCain had received only $239,690 while Mike Huckabee received even less — $124,269. McCain and Huckabee looked more like footnotes than serious challengers.
That held at the local level, too. Romney collected more than $15,000 of the nearly $40,000 that had been kicked in by donors from Southwest Missouri counties. Ron Paul was second with nearly $7,000 while Huckabee was third and McCain was fourth.
But later that night when the votes were counted, it came down to a race between McCain and Huckabee, with McCain squeaking it out in the end. Romney was third.
Among residents in Southwest Missouri, the clear favorite was Huckabee.
That’s the way it played out in big states such as California, too, where Romney collected $7.8 million but lost to McCain, who collected $4.6 million. Nationally, Romney collected $88.5 million from donors to McCain’s $41.5 million, but it was McCain who took the Republican helm on Super Tuesday. It was Romney, the money man, who packed up the dream.
Someone from Arizona, it seems, understood the old lesson: Rain doesn’t follow the plow.
On the Democratic side of the ticket, the money was more evenly matched and the race harder to call. Barack Obama received $805,834 from Missouri contributors and Hillary Clinton got $738,507. And in the end, while Obama pulled ahead by a few thousand votes, it now looks like he and Hillary split Missouri delegates about as evenly as they split the money.
Address correspondence to Andy Ostmeyer, c/o The Joplin Globe, P.O. Box 7, Joplin, Mo. 64802 or e-mail aostmeyer@joplinglobe.com.
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