NEW YORK, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- The New York City region, with about 6 percent of the U.S. population, accounts for 20 percent of total contributions to 2008 U.S. presidential campaigns.
"You come here because there is more money on any stretch of Park Avenue from 59th Street to 96th Street than there is in most countries in the world," political consultant Hank Sheinkopf told The New York Times. "In two hours you can assemble people in one room of one apartment from every major sector of the economy and the cultural world, all of whom have interest in what occurs in government."
Many of the area's rich have covered more than one bet with their donations.
Novelist Jay McInerney and his wife, Anne Hearts McInerney, gave to Sen. Hillary Clinton on the Democratic side and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who dropped out of the GOP race this week. David Mack, vice president of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, contributed $4,600 each to Clinton and Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., and $2,300 each on the Republican side to Giuliani, former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.
