Wall Street is with Mitt.
Less than a month to go before the presidential election, the Republican candidate and former private-equity head honcho is leading President Barack Obama by a wide margin when it comes to campaign contributions from the nation’s biggest banks.
Near the top of Mitt Romney’s donors is Morgan Stanley, including its Smith Barney brokerage unit. Individual bank employees have contributed a combined $522,997 through Oct. 1, compared to $143,918 for Obama’s campaign, according to the most recent available data from the Center for Responsive Politics.
Bankers at Goldman Sachs kicked in a total of $455,930 to Romney’s campaign, versus $101,262 for Obama, making it the second biggest contributor by employees among US banks.
Overall, the six biggest banks, including Morgan Stanley, Goldman, Bank of America, JPMorgan, Citigroup and Wells Fargo, have lavished $1.89 million on Romney’s campaign — nearly 40 percent more than Obama’s $700,000 in contributions.
Big banks rank among the top contributors to super PACS that support Romney’s campaign as well.
Romney — who has said he would aim to repeal aspects of the Dodd-Frank financial regulation that has some banks chafing — has received $891,000 in Goldman PAC dollars, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.
Bank of America, with $668,139; JPMorgan Chase, with $663,219; and even Swiss-based banking giant Credit Suisse at $554,000 are also among the top PAC contributors for Romney.
By comparison, Obama’s top five PAC contributors are closer to Silicon Valley than Wall Street. They include: the University of California, $706,931; Microsoft Corp., $544,445; and Google, $526,009.