All in all, New Hampshire residents who made donations of $ 200 or more contributed $11.7 million in the last two-year federal election cycle, which ran from October 2006 to early last month. And the total doesn't include most of last month's surge in what has been a deluge of campaign cash.

That might seem like a lot of money, but it pales in comparison to donations nationwide, which topped $2.2 billion during the same period.

Among the higher-profile contributors was Steve Duprey, a developer and owner of Foxfire Property Management, a Concord-based developer of hotels and other commercial buildings, who worked as anadviser and fund-raiser for Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

And there was Gary Hirshberg, the chief executive of Stonyfield Farm, the Londonderry-based yogurt manufacturer, who was an early backer and fundraiser for President elect Barack Obama.

Like so many others participating in the last election, Duprey and Hirshberg and their families gave more than their time. The Hirshbergs contributed a total of $87,000 last election cycle, with $41,000 going to Obama, while the Dupreys gave $75,000 with $51,000 going to McCain.

But they weren't the largest New Hampshire contributors by any means. Family members of Yalcin Ayasli, the founder of Nashua-based Hittite Microwave, donated $366,650 to both sides, and particularly to candidates supporting Turkey.

Executives from White Mountains Insurance's Hanover headquarters donated more than $205,000, with more than half of it going to McCain, while executives from the former Hampton-based Fisher Scientific (since merged into Thermo Fisher Scientific) and its various offshoots including Latona Associates and Liberty Lane Partners - dropped nearly $160,000 on federal candidates and political committees. Former Fisher executives donated $47,000 to Latona 's own PAC, which gave to both Republican U.S. Sen. John Sununu and the opponent who will replace him, former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen. Former Fisher/Latona executives also donated another $14,000 to the two Senate candidates, with $2,000 more going to Sununu than Shaheen. Another $27,500 went to the failed presidential campaign of Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd and $9,000 going to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney.

With the presidential primary, said Hirshberg, New Hampshire residents "are used to giving with their feet," but now they have "dug deep" into their pockets as well. And that digging has been to Hirshberg's liking.

Even excluding the small Internet donations that Obama has made his trademark the president-elect swamped his opponent among bigger New Hampshire donors, raising nearly $1.94 million, compared to McCain's $865,000. As a whole, Democrats also raised more money, though the difference wasn't as great - $5.3 million to $4.7 million.

Business executives and business owners make up the greatest percentage of those who were able to donate $200 or more. In the past, they have tended to contribute to Republicans. But not this year.

"The Democrats have done a very good job convincing the business community that they have their best interest at heart," said Duprey. "The next two years will be very telling in that regard."

Of course, most business executives in New Hampshire, like Duprey and Hirshberg, appear to be donating out of personal beliefs, not because they are hoping for something in return. Duprey, a former Republican Party chairman, said that he doubts that "a federal politician is going to do much to help property management."

And Hirshberg, who has a clock ticking away the last seconds of the Bush administration outside his office, said his contributions "are not at all related to my business interests."

Mystery donors

Not all of the big givers were affiliated with for-profit corporations.