April 17 (Bloomberg) -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama ran ahead of New York Senator Hillary Clinton and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani on their home turf, raising cash from the biggest investment banks on Wall Street.

Obama raised $479,209 from employees at the banks in the first quarter, according to Federal Election Commission filings. That was better than Giuliani, a Republican who collected $473,442. Clinton, Obama's Democratic rival, raised $447,625. The figures are based on employers listed by donors; in some cases, the names are missing or incomplete.

The employees of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and UBS AG gave Obama more than a combined $260,000, boosting his showing. The Illinois senator's top fundraisers include David Heller, a managing director at Goldman, and Robert Wolf, chief executive officer of UBS Americas. Neither was available for comment.

``I've never had a higher hit ratio in terms of asking people for money and them saying yes,'' said James Torrey, an Obama fundraiser and chairman and chief executive officer of New York-based Torrey Associates, a $1.3 billion fund of funds. ``There are one or two or three people who are zealots within these firms and when they get behind a candidate, other people within these firms follow.''

Investment Banks

In addition to Goldman and UBS, the figures reflect giving from the employees of Bear Stearns Cos., Citigroup Inc., Credit Suisse Group, Deutsche Bank AG, JPMorgan Chase & Co., Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and Morgan Stanley. Goldman employees gave 1 1/2 times as much to presidential hopefuls as the next highest set of givers, from Citigroup.

Giuliani's Republican rival Mitt Romney, 60, raised at least $385,700 from top investment banks, while Senator John McCain of Arizona got $213,660. When adding in the top 10 hedge funds and top 10 private equity firms, Romney did better, helped by ties he made in the corporate world before becoming governor of Massachusetts. He previously ran the Boston-based investment firm Bain Capital LLC, whose employees gave him $79,400.

Obama, 45, also got money from the private equity world, receiving a combined $35,000 from employees of the leveraged- buyout firm Blackstone Group LP in New York and the Carlyle Group, a global private equity firm based in Washington.

The Democratic candidates for president tallied up more than $1.3 million in contributions from top Wall Street investment banking firms in the period, compared with about $1.1 million for the Republicans, FEC filings show.

`Hungry'

``The Democrats are hungry,'' said former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican, in an interview last week. ``They're just simply doing the better job today.''

Employees of New York-based Goldman, the world's biggest securities firm by market value, donated at least $120,250 to Obama and $113,750 to Romney, FEC filings show. Clinton got $64,400 from the firm's employees. Giuliani received $13,250.

``These are private decisions by individuals at the firm to contribute and it would be inappropriate for Goldman Sachs to comment on it,'' said Peter Rose, a spokesman in New York.

Obama was one of a small group of invitees that addressed Goldman's annual partners' meeting in Chicago on May 31. He headed into the private session with billionaire investor Warren Buffett, who also spoke to the group along with former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.

UBS

Goldman employees are among the most politically active on Wall Street. The firm has produced two Treasury secretaries in recent years -- Democrat Robert Rubin and Republican Hank Paulson -- as well as New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine, a Democrat.

U.S. employees of Zurich-based UBS gave more than $140,000 to Obama, compared with $62,050 for Giuliani, 62, and $9,100 for Clinton. Romney raised at least $24,100 from UBS employees and McCain, 70, took in $16,000.

Clinton, 59, has long benefited from the support of Wall Street. Employees of Citigroup, the biggest U.S. bank, make up the largest group of donors to her last two Senate races, with Goldman coming in second. That's according to figures from the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics, a research group that tracks money in politics.

Individual candidates were helped by their personal ties on Wall Street as well. John Edwards, 53, a Democratic candidate and former North Carolina senator, got more than $150,000 from employees of New York-based Fortress Investment Group LLC, where he served as a senior adviser. Among the top investment banks, Edwards took in $193,250, FEC filings show.

SAC Capital

Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd, 62, who's also pursuing the Democratic nomination, took in more than $175,000 from employees of SAC Capital, a hedge fund manager in Stamford, Connecticut.

Giuliani got at least $168,400 from employees at the New York-based hedge fund Elliott Associates LP. The fund's founder, Paul Singer, is a regional finance chairman for the campaign.

During the quarter, New York-based Bear Stearns hosted presidential candidates from both parties. In the end, the firm's employees gave their biggest group of donations to Giuliani, who spoke to about 400 senior managing directors at the security firm's Madison Avenue headquarters on March 1. He received at least $67,942 of their more than $200,000 in contributions.

To contact the reporters on this story: Kristin Jensen in Washington at kjensen@bloomberg.net; Christine Harper in New York at charper@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 17, 2007 15:09 EDT