Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton may be raking in the Montecito and Malibu money, but in between, nobody gets Ventura County residents to open their checkbooks like Rudy Giuliani.

Giuliani, the former New York City mayor running for the Republican presidential nomination, has raised $134,775 from donors with Ventura County addresses, more than any candidate in the presidential primaries. Republican Mitt Romney is second, with $118,780.

The leading Democrats, Clinton and Obama, are third and fourth, respectively.

Republican John McCain is fifth, though he's raised only a little more than half of Obama's fourth-place total.

The figures reflect donations made through June 30, and are based on a Ventura County Star analysis of data provided by the Federal Elections Commission. The totals include contributions by Westlake Village residents, who live in Los Angeles County.

In partisan terms, Ventura County is atypical; nationwide and in California, Clinton and Obama have raised far more than the top Republicans.

On Sept. 8, Obama will hold the biggest fundraising party of all: a "celebration" and dinner at the Montecito estate of television, movie and magazine magnate Oprah Winfrey.

To get in the door, you'll have to donate $2,300, the maximum allowable for the primary election (donors can give another $2,300 to be used in the general election campaign). Raise $25,000 from your friends and family, and you can get into a private reception with Winfrey and Obama. Dinner with the hostess and the guest of honor requires $50,000 in donations.

The Obama campaign isn't releasing exact figures, but the event could net in the neighborhood of $3 million.

That's an astonishing figure, representatives of some of the other candidates' campaigns said.

"Even raising $1 million at one event is a huge number," said Tony Strickland, a former state assemblyman from Moorpark who's running Romney's campaign in California.

'On the list'

Ventura County isn't likely to host any $3 million fundraisers, but it has become an important campaign stop, especially for Republicans.

"This area is getting bigger," Strickland said. "It's now on the list; people definitely stop here."

Often, where they stop is Lake Sherwood, the community outside of Thousand Oaks. Giuliani held a fundraiser there in June, and Romney plans to come in September for an event at the home of Dole Food Co. owner David Murdock.

California's fundraising capitals are still Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area, but Ventura County has given more to the presidential candidates than its richer neighbor, Santa Barbara.

Apart from the Republican debate at the Reagan Library, though, Ventura County hasn't seen any of the top candidates in a public setting.

That could change before the primary rolls around on Feb. 5, some of the campaign strategists said.

"I think you'll see them in California, definitely, and maybe around here," Strickland said.

"Before, California was just the ATM, but now people are coming here for votes."

One reason, he said, is that the Republican Party has changed the way it allocates delegates after the California primary. The state primary used to be a winner-take-all affair, but this year, delegates will be awarded to the winner in each of the state's 53 congressional districts. The Democratic Party already uses a similar system.

So candidates in both parties aren't likely to give up on California. Even if they can't win, they can capture plenty of delegates.

Further upping the ante, California has moved up its primary from March to February in an effort to give it more weight in the national race.

"It creates a new dynamic in the race we've never seen before," said Cameron Smyth, a Republican assemblyman from Santa Clarita who's a co-chairman of Giuliani's California campaign.

"It makes it much more of a retail campaign," in which the candidates will try to appear before as many voters as possible, he said.

Oprah and Obama

Obama isn't planning any public events to coincide with his trip to Montecito, though Mitchell Schwartz, his California campaign manager, said he'll be back in Southern California for public speeches before the primary.

With all of the headlines it's generated, the Winfrey fundraiser might as well be a public event. Schwartz called Winfrey a "validator," someone who signals with her support that Obama has arrived.

"She's a phenomenon, and the attention we've gotten already, of course it's going to help — not just on the money side, but every which way," he said.

Strategists with the other campaigns are skeptical. They admit that the Winfrey fundraiser is great publicity and great money, but they doubt it matters to many voters.

"When you have someone the stature of Oprah Winfrey hosting an event like that, it does grab people's attention," Smyth said. "In terms of shifting voters? Probably not."

The event might even be big enough to grab the attention of Santa Barbara, a place notoriously jaded about its celebrities. Winfrey is one of the richest people in town and probably the most famous. But she hasn't been a major figure on the social scene, said Erin Graffy, a columnist with the Montecito Journal and the author of two books about Santa Barbara. Winfrey still spends a lot of time in Chicago, and not many locals have seen her $50 million Montecito estate, Graffy said.

"Because it's Oprah, I'm sure this will be a big thing," Graffy said. "But I think the vast majority of people who will be there will not be Santa Barbara people. I think she'll be pulling in a lot of Hollywood people. L.A. falls all over themselves to have an excuse to come to Santa Barbara."