Giuliani Gets a Boost From Vice

Rudy Giuliani is hardly the presidential candidate of the religious right. But he sure looks like the candidate of the politically incorrect.

Just consider where he's getting his money.

Giuliani is by far the most popular figure in the gambling and casino industry. He's raised $94,900 from bookies of all stripes so far -- twice as much as anyone else. Las Vegas' Fertitta family, owners of Station Casinos(STN), is among his top contributors.

Giuliani is also the cigarette companies' favorite Republican, collecting $26,050 from the industry in the quarter. That's five times as much as cigarette makers gave to nonsmoking Mormon Mitt Romney.

And Rudy is the toast of the town for maybe the most politically incorrect industry of them all: oil and gas. The oilmen handed him checks totaling $216,123 in the quarter, nearly twice as much as they gave anyone else. Granted, it has mainly been the left that sees this as a sinful industry, but these days even evangelical Christians are starting to get antsy about global warming.

Naturally, in a lot of these areas, he's helped by the business relationships he's built up in recent years through his lobbying firm, Giuliani Partners, as well as his law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani.

No one at Giuliani's campaign office was immediately available to comment.

(For more on Giuliani's financial ties, see Checking Giuliani's Ties which looks at his lobbying firm.)

The intriguing question is whether any of these sources might end up helping or hurting him. Once upon a time, "conservatives" tended to be libertarian when it came to domestic politics.