Follow the money: Palm Beach residents donate more to Clinton than to Trump

On the cusp of the presidential election, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton is ahead of Republican nominee Donald Trump in at least one respect: collecting direct donations from residents of Trump’s part-time hometown — Palm Beach, according to filings from the Federal Election Commission and the Center for Responsive Politics, a non-partisan, independent nonprofit that tracks money in U.S. politics.

Between April 2015 and Oct. 21, Clinton received $439,381 in direct campaign contributions from the wealthy Palm Beach 33480 zip code, according the Palm Beach Daily News, citing the center’s data. Trump garnered just $164,496 during the same timeframe from his neighbors in Palm Beach, the publication reported. Individual donors can give up to the legal limit of $2,700 in the primary and general election.

Even Republicans Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio raised more than Trump from Palm Beach for their failed presidential campaigns. Bush garnered $245,350 before leaving the race in February; Rubio got $198,470 before dropping out in March, the Palm Beach Daily News reported. And by comparison, 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney gleaned nearly $2.2 million in direct contributions from Palm Beach’s 33480 zip code between April 2011 and November 2012, according to FEC filings cited by the publication.

In Palm Beach, philanthropists Ginny Burke and Diana Ecclestone, longtime GOP stalwart Gay Gaines, commercial real estate developer Murray Goodman, Landmarks Preservation Commissioner Page Lee Hufty, Preservation Foundation chairwoman Pauline Pitt, investor Wilbur Ross and former Jos. A. Bank CEO Robert Wildrick are among the largest contributors directly to Trump’s campaign, according to the Palm Beach Daily News.

Trump’s largest holding in Palm Beach is Mar-a-Lago. The private club, built in the 1920s as a home for cereal tycoon Marjorie Merriweather Post, was last valued by Forbes at $150 million. [Palm Beach Daily News] — Ina Cordle