Top Campaign Contributors in Ames: See Who in Ames Gave the Most Money to Obama or Romney

Five out of the six largest Ames contributions to the presidential campaign went to President Barack Obama according to the Ames Patch contributor tool. But Mitt Romney's top Ames donor has given thousands more to Republican organizations.

Leigh Tesfatsion, a professor at Iowa State University, gave two contributions of $2,500 to Obama's campaign in both May 2011 and December 2011.

A retired Ames man, Robert Gitchell, donated $2,500 and $2,400 to the Obama campaign in September 2011.  The donation was part of a $10,000 contribution given to the Obama Victory Fund 2012 on Sept. 14, 2011, according to Federal Election Commission reports. And Jennifer Garst, of the Story County Community Foundation, contributed $2,500 to the campaign in June.

Brent Rastetter, an engineer of Quality Ag Inc. contributed $5,000 to Mitt Romney's campaign in June 2012 and has donated several thousand dollars to other Republican campaigns according to the FEC site. He donated a total of $63,500 to the Romney Victory Inc., in June 2012. Of that: $13,850 went to the National Republican Senatorial Committee in July; $30,800 went to the Republican National Committee in June and $13,850 to the National Republican Congressional Committee in July. The other $5,000 went to Romney's campaign.

Brent Rastetter is the brother of Bruce Rastetter who serves on the Iowa State Board of Regents.