Mitt Romney draws more Wall Street donations than Obama

The captains of Wall Street have picked a presidential candidate for 2012 and it is Republican Mitt Romney, rather than Democratic President Barack Obama, campaign donation records show.

The records released Tuesday by the U.S. Federal Election Commission illustrate a basic shift in political giving at the presidential level by the nation's financial elite.

After a fling with Obama - the charismatic Democrat embraced four years ago during the severe credit crisis that erupted under President George W. Bush - Wall Street is backing Romney in a return to its largely Republican inclinations.

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Romney's six largest campaign contribution sources in 2011 were executives, family members and affiliated political action committees of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Citigroup and Bank of America, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington, D.C.-based group that monitors campaign finances.

The center said that the leaders of the six Wall Street giants -- which were rescued from ruin by U.S. taxpayers about three years ago -- have given $1.8 million to the Romney campaign.

As for Obama, Goldman Sachs was the sole major financial firm ranked among his top 20 contribution sources for 2011, with gifts of just $64,000 compared with $496,000 to Romney.

As they line up behind Romney, banks and investment firms are being joined by a new generation of hedge fund and private equity managers with deep pockets.

They are backing the candidate who comes from their ranks -- Romney, a former private equity executive.

"The financial industry has preferred Romney from the beginning when he started his campaign," said Viveca Novak, spokesperson for the center. "He is of their world. They believe he understands them. So, not suprising they would favor him."

Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul, the other three Republican presidential contenders, have received very limited support from the financial sector.

FINANCE ON TOP AGAIN

As usual, the finance/insurance/real estate sector is leading all others on the campaign donors list, the center said.

Even after the 2008 financial crisis and the 2010 passage of the Dodd-Frank laws that put new restrictions on the banks and markets, "the power of Wall Street in Washington is unmitigated," said Richard Parker, a public policy lecturer at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government.

The sector had donated more than $23 million to presidential campaigns as of Dec. 5, the center said. And there are nine months to go before the elections for president and Congress.

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