What California's Political Donations Look Like In 3D

The big donor money race, zip by zip, in 3D

The greater the total itemized contributions, the taller the zip code

Click the map to view it in a larger window. Note: We've only tested in Chrome. The interactive won't work for Safari users. (CalMatters)

Our friends at CalMatters have put together six colorful charts to illustrate where Californians are spending their money so far in the 2020 presidential election. Some key points:

• President Trump is out front, with more than any other individual candidate.

But...

Ben Christopher, who covers politics and elections for CalMatters, advises that before you revise your understanding of California voters, you have to keep two caveats in mind.

1. Democratic contenders taken together leave Trump in the dust — they’ve collected 83% of California’s reported donors. (Trump faces no significant GOP challengers, the Democratic field is split 11 ways.)

2. Under federal election law, campaigns only have to “itemize” contributions if a particular donor has given more than $200 over the course of a year. Donations below that threshold aren’t reported with name, address, and homestate attached.

Our favorite graphic is above, showing the 3D contributions by zip code -- which mitigates for color-coded flat maps that can overemphasize big but sparsely populated areas.

GO DEEPER:

• See all six of the graphics >>