Candidates looking abroad for cash

Rudy Giuliani raised campaign cash in London on Wednesday, and he's not the only presidential candidate looking abroad.

The first half of this year, overseas contributions totaled at least $471,500 -- nearly more than was brought in during the entire 2000 race and on pace to exceed the $900,000 raised in 2004, a campaign finance watchdog group reported today.

That trend will continue as more politically minded US expatriates work in foreign financial centers and as campaigns take advantage of online fundraising, the Center for Responsive Politics said.

Its report said that 60 percent of the money from expats this year went to Democrats, and that Barack Obama has reaped the most, with nearly $195,000. Giuliani is second with about $120,000, Democrat Hillary Clinton third with $51,450, and Republican Mitt Romney fourth with $43,700.

Among cities, London is the biggest source of campaign cash, with $270,700, more than twice as much as the next biggest source, Geneva. Other cities with lots of donors include Paris, Toronto, and Paris.

"These people tend to be wealthier than the average American because a lot of them are business people," Raymond La Raja, a political scientist at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, says in the report. "This is another constituency [the candidates] can tap into."