WASHINGTON — The first votes for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination are still months away, but Ohioans have already given nearly a quarter of a million dollars to would-be candidates, including $58,000 to “SarahPAC,” former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s political action committee.

Trailing just behind Palin in cash from Ohioans is former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s “Free and Strong America PAC,” which has received $50,000.

Ohio, long a bellwether in presidential politics, isn’t necessarily considered a must-win for Republican primary candidates.

But the enthusiasm a candidate musters in the Buckeye state — including financial contributions — can be indicative of how they’ll do in the general election.

“Ohio’s always going to be a focus of presidential elections,” said Dave Levinthal, a spokesman for the Center for Responsive Politics, which collects and analyzes data about political fundraising. “If one candidate is doing particularly well there, that could to some degree foreshadow their success later.”

Ohio money is important, too.

Before presidential candidates launch formal campaigns, they raise money through leadership PACs — political action committees that politicians use for indirect sponsoring of a candidacy. The funds can be used for travel, political consulting fees or polling.

Levinthal calls those PACs a “barometer” of early support.

Later, Ohio can be expected to be a significant donor to campaign coffers.

In 2008, presidential campaign donations from Ohio totaled nearly $16 million.

Palin has long cast a shadow on the Republican field, though she has not declared her candidacy. Unless she announces she is not running, and maybe even after that, she will remain a factor.

“I think Sarah Palin is a true patriotic American,” said Patricia Alderson, 62, a community organizer for charitable giving from West Chester Twp. in Butler County who gave SarahPAC $2,000 in November 2009. “She wants to do the right thing. She’s a person who speaks from her heart and she reminds me of a woman fighting for her children. Every time she talks, I’m like, ‘you go, girl.’ ”

Retiree Thomas Bigwood, 83, a Canal Winchester resident, favors Romney, and has given the candidate’s political action committee $1,400 since April 2010.

“I looked over the whole crop and I said, ‘he’s the best of the lot,’ ” Bigwood said.

In recent elections, Ohio has lived up to its swing state reputation. In 2004, Republican George W. Bush won the state with 50.81 percent of the vote. In 2008, Democrat Barack Obama won with 51.5 percent. Then, in the 2010 governor’s race, Republican John Kasich won with 49.04 percent. The average margin of victory in the three races was 2.9 percent.

The 2008 money race was just as tight. Of the $16 million raised from Ohio donors from the primary through the general election, more than $8.1 million went to Republican candidates and more than $7.6 million went to Democrats, according to an analysis of financial contributions by the nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics.

Cincinnati led all Ohio metropolitan areas in donations, giving a total of $5.1 million, followed by Cleveland, $4.1 million; and Columbus, $2.7 million. The Dayton-Springfield area raised $805,367.

President Barack Obama, who declared his candidacy for re-election earlier this year, will file fundraising reports in July, Levinthal said.

Cincinnati, which was a heavy early donor to Romney’s primary campaign in 2008, is showing more support for former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty so far this cycle. Of the 53 individual donations to Pawlenty’s PAC, more than 40 came from ZIP codes within Cincinnati. Of the 70 individual donations to Romney’s PAC, 20 were from Cincinnati.

Former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who announced his candidacy last week, has also done well: Ohio donors gave his PAC $24,901 so far this cycle, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

Some Ohio donors have given money to candidates who later backed out or whose prospects, like Palin’s, remain unclear. Sen. Jim DeMint, a South Carolina conservative who has given mixed indications as to whether he’ll run, has raised $33,650 from Ohioans through his PAC.

John C. Green, director of the Ray C. Bliss Institute of Applied Politics at the University of Akron, said a later primary season next year is one factor affecting GOP candidate fundraising. “Usually by this time ..., there are a lot of declared candidates and people engaging in what some scholars call ‘the invisible primary,’ ” Green said. “It’s just started very slowly this time.”