Cropp, Fenty Chase Different Donors

Negash Shifraw, right, introduces Linda W. Cropp at an event at Abi Ti Ethiopian Restaurant in Northwest. His wife, Abonesh Boku, is at left. Cropp says she has "a broad range of contributions from everyone, from all over this city." (Photos By Lucian Perkins -- The Washington Post)

Overall, Cropp has collected the most: $1.77 million, according to an amended report filed last week. Fenty is close behind with $1.75 million.

About half of Cropp's funds have come from D.C. residents and businesses, compared with 58 percent for Fenty.

Both candidates have also cultivated patrons outside the city, most in Maryland and Virginia. Two of Fenty's biggest backers come from farther afield: Tennessee developer and baseball bidder Franklin L. Haney, his wife, daughters, sons-in-law and various companies gave Fenty $22,000 in May and June. Fenty also collected $24,000 in June from affiliates of Carmel Partners, a California firm that owns several apartment buildings in Columbia Heights and Mount Pleasant. Haney did not return calls. An executive with Carmel Partners would not comment.

Cropp and Fenty both received substantial amounts from business entities, which, like individuals, can give up to $2,000 per candidate under D.C. law. Cropp holds an edge in such gifts, with $589,455 compared with Fenty's $544,929 -- about a third of total collections for each campaign.

But the sources of those contributions differ dramatically. Downtown business interests pitched in so much for Cropp that a block-by-block map of her D.C. donations forms a bull's-eye over the center city Zip codes of 20036, 20005 and 20006. Smaller nodes of cash appear on Capitol Hill and in the far northern reaches of Ward 4.

Fenty got his share of downtown dollars from lawyers, developers and parking interests, but he also attracted money from small businesses, restaurants and shops, many of them along Columbia Road, where his parents own a popular running-shoe store. A block-by-block map of Fenty's D.C. donations follows Georgia Avenue out of downtown, with heavy concentrations of cash in Wards 1, 3 and 4.

By almost every measure, Fenty seems the populist outsider.

Cropp has more big contributions: $2,000 gifts make up nearly a quarter of her collections, compared with 17 percent for Fenty.

Fenty has more small donations: Nearly 18 percent of his cash came in increments of $250 or less, compared with 8 percent for Cropp.

Even Cropp's corporate contributions are bigger: On average, businesses gave her $1,200, while Fenty's average was $870.

"Business types and the developers are scared to death Fenty will get in," said Bernard Ross, professor emeritus of public administration at American University. "Linda Cropp has a record of helping development in this city, and Fenty is still an unknown."

The fundraising patterns of the other major contenders are also telling.