With Ron Paul netting $1.8 million in a 24-hour money bomb on his birthday last weekend, the Texas U.S. Representative and Republican presidential candidate appears poised to rank in the upper echelons for fundraising in the large GOP field by the end of the third quarter.

Paul was also able to raise a substantial amount of money during his 2008 White House bid with more than $34 million.

The difference in this cycle is that Paul is polling at a much higher clip right out of the gate.

One thing that hasn't changed much from four years ago, however, is where Paul's deepest pockets of support lie for large donor giving to his campaign.

A Smart Politics study of contributions to Ron Paul's 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns finds that the same four states lead the pack in large donor per capita individual giving in both cycles: Wyoming, New Hampshire, Nevada, and Alaska.

As with the 2008 cycle, Paul is raising approximately half of his money in his 2012 campaign from individual donations of $200 or more (through Q2 2011 numbers provided by the FEC).

With its 'Live Free or Die' motto, New Hampshire fittingly was the leading per capita supporter of Paul's 2008 campaign at $17,337 per 100,000 residents in large donor contributions - a 31 percent higher clip than the second place state Wyoming at $13,241.

Paul finished a distant fifth in the New Hampshire primary in 2008 at 7.7 percent, and is currently polling just north of that with approximately five months until its 2012 primary.

This time around, New Hampshire is coming in at a close second to Wyoming in early per capita giving to Paul's 2012 campaign, with the Equality State edging the Granite State $2,682 to $2,506 per 100,000 residents.

Paul's appeal in Western states - where libertarian streaks are more pronounced - is quite evident.

Several of the Top 10 states in early per capita giving to Paul for the 2012 cycle are out west:

· Wyoming at #1 at $2,682 per 100,000 residents
· Nevada at #3 ($1,861)
· Alaska at #4 ($1,488)
· Hawaii at #6 ($1,087)
· Washington at #7 ($1,073)
· Arizona at #9 ($1,029).

Paul's southwestern home state of Texas comes in at #5 at $1,141 per 100,000 residents.

This generally reflects the pattern of high per capita contributions from western states to Paul seen in the 2008 cycle, when Alaska had the third highest rate ($12,902 per 100,000 residents) behind New Hampshire and Wyoming, with Nevada at #4 ($12,272), Montana at #5 ($11,315), Washington at #6 ($10,222), Idaho at #7 ($9,743), and Arizona at #9 ($8,495).

The two states rounding out the Top 10 in donations to Paul's campaign for his 2012 presidential run are Maine at #8 ($1,067 per 100,000 residents) and Iowa at #10 ($1,010).

Paul invested significant resources in Iowa leading to an extremely close second place finish at the Ames Straw Poll earlier this month.

The Hawkeye State is the only Midwestern state to crack the Top 15 among per capita donors to Paul's campaign, and only one of two states from the region to make the Top 25 (with North Dakota at #19).

The five states with the most sluggish per capita giving to Paul's campaign are South Dakota at #51 ($209 per 100,000 residents), Wisconsin at #49 ($329), South Carolina at $48 ($360), the District of Columbia at #47 ($386), and Indiana at #46 ($407).

In absolute dollars, the nation's largest states naturally lead the way in contributions to Paul with California ($312,360), Texas ($286,968), Florida ($145,112), New York ($90,232), and Pennsylvania ($77,878) comprising the Top 5 in the 2012 cycle.