Romney gains toehold in Silicon Valley fundraising

Presidential candidate Barack Obama, his Blackberry always close at hand, was the darling of the technology world and it rewarded him with generous donations to his 2008 campaign.

Although he is still raising far more money there than current Republican rival Mitt Romney, President Barack Obama in 2012 is finding Silicon Valley to be tougher terrain. He lags behind his 2008 campaign in donations from workers at Internet, computer and telecom equipment powerhouses such as Google, IBM, Hewlett Packard, and Cisco. The Obama campaign has raised $1.44 million through May from employees of 15 top tech companies, as compared to $1.6 million donated by the same companies' staff four years ago. Romney, a former private equity executive, is making inroads to a key source of cash for Obama, who some tech leaders view as anti-business because of uncertainty that they blame on the Dodd-Frank financial regulation reform and the healthcare overhaul.