Political donations, 1980-2012: Puritan vs. other names

What happens when we search opensecrets.org for distinctive surnames? Note: there won't be much precision in these numbers. This is simply a demonstration of the sort of thing that's possible.

I'm only looking at donations that feature "repub" or "democ" in the name of the recipient. This saves time but excludes most or all donations to specific candidates. To do this properly, I suggest: (1) look at all donations (which will require sorting donations to specific candidates into republican/democrat or conservative/liberal); (2) aggregate donations to the level of individual donors, so we're comparing the number of individuals on each side, rather than the number of donations; (3) increase the number of "Puritan" and other names looked at; (4) also break down comparisons by region (or even by state, if statistics allow).

Where genealogical information is available, donors with Puritan surnames can also be divided into bins based on their actual degree of New England ancestry to see if any trends hold.

The Puritan name list includes the names used by Weyl (which came from Huntington) and some other names mentioned by Huntington here. "Lyman" has been adopted by Jews (e.g., Democratic donor "Princeton Nathan Lyman" writes about having lunch with anti-apartheid activist Joe Slovo: "That day we talked a little about our roots, as we were both products of Lithuanian Jewish parents. Slovo had been born in Lithuania and came to South Africa as a child. He would credit his Jewish roots for some of his social conscience, but he was never religious."), so I prefer to exclude it. For the same reason, I excluded "Cole" from the English list and "Ross" from the Scottish list. The remaining name lists are based on Weyl ("The Geography of American Achievement"), except for the list of the ten most common Irish surnames, which I added.

	repub		democ		repub/democ
	records	dollars	records	dollars	records	dollars
PURITAN (excluding lyman)	703	595098	241	206523	2.92	2.88
ENGLISH CLERICAL	3864	3673871	1196	1287126	3.23	2.85
SCOTTISH	4057	3665089	1471	1291021	2.76	2.84
ENGLISH	3933	2983327	1106	1056399	3.56	2.82
IRISH	4903	5291109	1660	2036620	2.95	2.6
PURITAN (including lyman)	755	619566	318	242962	2.37	2.55
IRISH (top 10)	6535	6888658	2103	3249880	3.11	2.12
GERMAN	3832	3094483	1044	1510555	3.67	2.05
“NEW” CHINESE	18308	17037579	6982	9232097	2.62	1.85
KOREAN	1124	998377	276	583543	4.07	1.71
ITALIAN	415	267295	111	172194	3.74	1.55
WELSH	1485	1172239	527	779238	2.82	1.5
FRENCH	725	990795	274	724305	2.65	1.37
INDIAN	755	649459	380	599444	1.99	1.08
“OLD” CHINESE	1969	1533353	702	1598841	2.8	0.96
JEWISH	4476	7374127	6904	15332169	0.65	0.48
AFRO-AMERICAN	49	89210	61	224389	0.8	0.4

	repub		democ		repub/democ
	records	dollars	records	dollars	records	dollars
angell	50	63855	31	19450	1.61	3.28
conant	68	37006	16	7035	4.25	5.26
mather	65	36535	35	15967	1.86	2.29
seymour	93	57606	18	9536	5.17	6.04
taft	101	131157	57	103811	1.77	1.26
huntington	58	72958	45	21050	1.29	3.47
coolidge	24	22750	5	2415	4.8	9.42
hooker	78	59564	13	15415	6	3.86
cleveland	148	108667	19	11394	7.79	9.54
trumbull	18	5000	2	450	9	11.11
PURITAN (weyl and huntington)	703	595098	241	206523	2.92	2.88
angell	50	63855	31	19450	1.61	3.28
conant	68	37006	16	7035	4.25	5.26
mather	65	36535	35	15967	1.86	2.29
seymour	93	57606	18	9536	5.17	6.04
taft	101	131157	57	103811	1.77	1.26
huntington	58	72958	45	21050	1.29	3.47
coolidge	24	22750	5	2415	4.8	9.42
hooker	78	59564	13	15415	6	3.86
cleveland	148	108667	19	11394	7.79	9.54
trumbull	18	5000	2	450	9	11.11
lyman	52	24468	77	36439	0.68	0.67
PURITAN (weyl and huntington)	755	619566	318	242962	2.37	2.55
clark	2591	2282202	882	1051102	2.94	2.17
clarke	375	239652	84	62702	4.46	3.82
palmer	898	1152017	230	173322	3.9	6.65
ENGLISH CLERICAL (weyl)	3864	3673871	1196	1287126	3.23	2.85
bradford	166	224310	111	87659	1.5	2.56
chapman	598	386481	182	254160	3.29	1.52
curtis	362	276509	167	79318	2.17	3.49
fowler	449	351032	153	127580	2.93	2.75
heath	280	185294	63	44325	4.44	4.18
higgins	301	216618	0	0
hensley	121	56183	0	0
pearson	361	230428	114	118596	3.17	1.94
savage	246	134716	81	133206	3.04	1.01
spencer	621	589967	123	73958	5.05	7.98
whitaker	278	234880	0	0
york	150	96909	112	137597	1.34	0.7
ENGLISH (weyl)	3933	2983327	1106	1056399	3.56	2.82
andrew	514	367694	214	170969	2.4	2.15
bruce	240	136180	70	30235	3.43	4.5
campbell	1637	1647678	457	431995	3.58	3.81
mckee	209	272927	88	52905	2.38	5.16
mcmillan	172	155766	126	62967	1.37	2.47
cunningham	430	216492	211	127584	2.04	1.7
wallace	855	868352	305	414366	2.8	2.1
SCOTTISH (weyl)	4057	3665089	1471	1291021	2.76	2.84
schmidt	730	399910	177	368991	4.12	1.08
braun	287	234523	102	84682	2.81	2.77
hoffman	1065	1050529	359	528762	2.97	1.99
schultz	547	351239	107	83060	5.11	4.23
wagner	765	731768	208	354985	3.68	2.06
weber	438	326514	91	90075	4.81	3.62
GERMAN (weyl)	3832	3094483	1044	1510555	3.67	2.05
boucher	75	23698	34	40201	2.21	0.59
boudreaux	17	10760	13	7570	1.31	1.42
dubois	50	29218	43	21745	1.16	1.34
duvall	78	38910	10	8390	7.8	4.64
gagnon	35	15700	6	4700	5.83	3.34
girard	103	314225	73	466672	1.41	0.67
landry	134	278988	40	48632	3.35	5.74
lanier	192	224642	14	24465	13.71	9.18
leblanc	41	54654	41	101930	1	0.54
FRENCH (weyl)	725	990795	274	724305	2.65	1.37
patel	165	138621	141	141922	1.17	0.98
rao	83	56053	42	131614	1.98	0.43
rau	380	287901	85	113074	4.47	2.55
shah	127	166884	112	212834	1.13	0.78
INDIAN (weyl)	755	649459	380	599444	1.99	1.08
kim	1124	998377	276	583543	4.07	1.71
KOREAN (weyl)	1124	998377	276	583543	4.07	1.71
washington	49	89210	61	224389	0.8	0.4
AFRO-AMERICAN (weyl)	49	89210	61	224389	0.8	0.4
chan	1121	1017152	352	1032706	3.18	0.98
chang	249	198749	78	226417	3.19	0.88
chin	133	58386	60	63028	2.22	0.93
fong	116	90015	26	54665	4.46	1.65
wong	277	138598	146	202033	1.9	0.69
yee	73	30453	40	19992	1.83	1.52
“OLD” CHINESE NAMES (weyl)	1969	1533353	702	1598841	2.8	0.96
chen	551	444336	136	137940	4.05	3.22
cheng	61	51399	21	11550	2.9	4.45
choi	64	31661	19	22700	3.37	1.39
chu	617	479803	212	268623	2.91	1.79
chung	95	71490	20	44200	4.75	1.62
ho	11027	10477165	4564	6050885	2.42	1.73
hong	69	51250	14	8995	4.93	5.7
lin	2557	2763616	739	875293	3.46	3.16
wang	253	471506	126	448790	2.01	1.05
win	2268	1627166	855	1029936	2.65	1.58
wu	468	279323	181	222495	2.59	1.26
yu	278	288864	95	110690	2.93	2.61
“NEW” CHINESE NAMES (weyl)	18308	17037579	6982	9232097	2.62	1.85
bowen	301	207475	114	131027	2.64	1.58
dewey	79	55561	16	9560	4.94	5.81
edmonds	204	98909	25	43080	8.16	2.3
floyd	243	308666	47	26453	5.17	11.67
glenn	202	147951	75	137213	2.69	1.08
lloyd	225	224233	174	140811	1.29	1.59
meredith	82	55492	47	271576	1.74	0.2
prather	54	36487	25	12068	2.16	3.02
pritchard	95	37465	4	7450	23.75	5.03
WELSH (weyl)	1485	1172239	527	779238	2.82	1.5
caruso	110	351508	9	18650	12.22	18.85
rizzo	39	15365	13	34094	3	0.45
rossi	143	76669	31	67170	4.61	1.14
esposito	56	22863	17	21560	3.29	1.06
giordano	67	51750	30	15660	2.23	3.3
carbone	35	38152	3	7350	11.67	5.19
corona	18	5821	6	6235	3	0.93
gentile	41	45415	5	9225	8.2	4.92
marchese	6	2010	5	10650	1.2	0.19
santini	10	9250	1	250	10	37
ITALIAN (weyl)	415	267295	111	172194	3.74	1.55
berman	128	347282	319	654272	0.4	0.53
bernstein	243	359140	361	501746	0.67	0.72
cohen	449	709873	450	1693062	1	0.42
epstein	136	381796	248	377286	0.55	1.01
friedman	295	695258	547	1050929	0.54	0.66
gold	1143	1355560	1754	3998472	0.65	0.34
goldberg	148	181292	385	851417	0.38	0.21
goldstein	158	191184	201	334791	0.79	0.57
greenberg	204	400753	295	721522	0.69	0.56
kaplan	196	195242	589	1772086	0.33	0.11
katz	233	390869	428	1101892	0.54	0.35
levine	153	343105	372	542976	0.41	0.63
levy	420	722164	287	314183	1.46	2.3
rosenberg	276	353807	287	590750	0.96	0.6
stern	294	746802	381	826785	0.77	0.9
JEWISH (weyl)	4476	7374127	6904	15332169	0.65	0.48