Silicon Valley embraces Obama as promising start-up

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Silicon Valley, home to Google, tech innovation and some of the world's richest people, is sending money to a young, untested presidential candidate who is sort of like a start-up -- Barack Obama.

Polls ahead of Tuesday's California primary show Obama lagging rival Hillary Clinton. But residents of the Valley -- where companies such as Yahoo! Inc, Google Inc and Apple Inc have changed American life -- have written checks for Obama more than any other candidate.

The Illinois Democrat has raised $940,459 from people in the computer/Internet industry, according to latest data from the Center for Responsive Politics. Clinton is second, followed by Republican candidates Mitt Romney and Sen. John McCain.

"It is absolutely the case that Obama is seen as different, and therefore appealing to Silicon Valley," said Bill Ericson, a political independent and general partner at Mohr Davidow Ventures, a venture capital firm.

People in Silicon Valley, who love innovation and change, see Obama as a break from the past, he said. Obama has received funding from high-flying tech executives like John Thompson, the chief executive of Symantec Corp.

Googleplex, the company's headquarters in Mountain View, has become a key stop for presidential candidates over the past year, but the crowd was especially enthusiastic when Obama visited in November.

Campaign records show that 69 Google employees contributed about $85,000 to Obama, compared to 39 people giving $61,400 for Clinton and $52,000 for Ron Paul, a Republican who has a strong following among the Internet crowd if not among voters.

Google's highest-profile woman, vice president Marissa Mayer, gave to Obama, rather than to Clinton, who would be the nation's first female president.

DIFFERENT VIEW FROM MICROSOFT

Employees at Yahoo, currently the object of a $44.6 billion takeover bid from Microsoft Corp, are financially supporting Obama over Clinton too.

But over at Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft, long a bitter rival of Silicon Valley companies, Clinton has edged past Obama in campaign contributions. Election records show that 137 Microsoft workers donated nearly $136,000 to Clinton, while Obama got $37,650 from 58 employees.

Although Clinton trails Obama in the Silicon Valley money race with $883,125 from the tech sector in her kitty, legendary venture capitalist John Doerr and his wife Ann publicly endorsed the New York senator in December. "From healthcare to national security, Hillary 'gets it,'" the Doerrs said.

Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, where Doerr is partner, has spearheaded the Valley's search for clean technologies, and last year brought Al Gore, the losing candidate in the 2000 election, on board.

As Silicon Valley VC firms invest in cleaner technologies, candidates' positions on the environment is becoming a bigger electoral issue, said Vinod Khosla, a well-known venture capitalist and cleantech entrepreneur.

"Washington D.C. has become increasingly important to Silicon Valley because of regulatory concerns around energy and green issues which are paramount in the Valley," he said.

Clinton has proposed a $50 billion fund to jumpstart research and investment in clean energy technologies.

Republican presidential candidates also garner a fair bit of support in an area dotted with billionaires.

Ebay's Meg Whitman leads former Gov. Romney's "National Women for Mitt" effort. Cisco Systems Inc chief executive John Chambers is McCain's national co-chair and economic and technology adviser.

Khosla has donated to both Democratic and Republican presidential candidates, records show, but said he admired McCain for his "long-standing position on the environment."

"The Valley is hyper-bi-partisan," said Jim Hock, a spokesman for Technet, a Washington-based tech lobby.

"Ultimately, people in Silicon Valley want to solve problems, and all the candidates have spoken to the issues we care about: national broadband plans, education reform, facilitating renewable energy policies, immigration and patent reform," he said.

(Additional reporting by Adam Tanner; Editing by Mary Milliken)