A study just out says this: "Attorney General Jim Petro received 46 times more Republican Party contributions in 2005 than rival Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell." This is entirely to Blackwell’s advantage: "Blackwell’s $2.7 million in donations collected through the end of last year included about 14,000 donations of less than $200, and only $9,875 from partisan committees. By contrast, Petro reported only 1,819 citizen donations under $200 and more than $467,000 in partisan contributions in the $2.4 million he has raised." This shows Blackwell’s support to be both deep and broad, and reveals Petro to be the more or less "official" GOP candidate for governor, and that is entirely to his disadvantage.
See also this more recent summary of contributions since February from the Toledo Blade :
"Blackwell outpaces Petro in fund-raising by nearly 4-1
By JAMES DREW and STEVE EDER
COLUMBUS - Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell collected nearly four times as much money since February as Attorney General Jim Petro, his opponent in the May 2 GOP primary for governor.
Campaign finance reports released yesterday show that since February, Mr. Blackwell has raised $1.09 million and Mr. Petro collected $283,000."
As the Blackwell Blog notes,
"much of Jim Petro’s contributions came from the Ohio Republican Party’s state candidate fund, while Ken Blackwell’s donations came directly from thousands of individual donors. That $1.09 million raised by Ken Blackwell’s campaign came from 3,951 individual contributors (an average of $253.21/contribution). This is yet another indicator that Ken Blackwell clearly has grassroots support on his side."