I guess Stewart Ledbetter is serious about this midlife crisis “running for office” thing. Because of all the campaign finance filings submitted by yesterday’s deadline, the former WPTZ anchor slash cromulent host of “Vermont This Week” reported a truly eye-popping $49,189 in donations — the vast majority in increments of more than $100.

And if there was any doubt about his centrist leanings, a perusal of his donor list would drown all uncertainty under a tsunami of conservative and business community cash. The Big Boys want to see Ledbetter in the Senate.

Where do I even begin? How about this: Ledbetter got big-dollar gifts from a total of 51 people. The average donation from each? A smidge under $900. And heck, if you roll in the 50 small donors, the average single donation to Ledbetter for Senate was a hefty $477.12.

He’s rollin’ in it. Can he buy a Senate seat? It remains to be seen, but he’s sure as hell trying.

The most dismaying aspect of Ledbetter’s well-heeled candidacy is that he is running in what seems to be the most progressive Senate district in Vermont: Chittenden Central, which includes northern and central Burlington plus all of WInooski and Essex Junction. (The district map is an homage to Elbridge Gerry if ever I saw one.) The three-seat district is currently represented by Senate President Pro Tem Phil Baruth, who serves as a Dem/Prog; Sen. Martine Gulick, the only member of the Senate Education Committee to put up a fight during Zoie Saunders’ confirmation hearing; and Prog/Dem Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky, one of the Progressive Party’s brightest hopes for the future.

Gulick is currently vice chair of Senate Education, and would presumably be in line to chair the committee next year. That is, if she’s still in the Senate. Ledbetter poses a very real threat to either Gulick or Vyhovsky in a four-way August primary for three Democratic nominations. (Baruth seems safe, and his complete lack of fundraising effort suggests that he sure feels that way.) And considering the district’s progressive lean, it’d be a damn shame if Ledbetter leverages his name recognition and cash advantage to win a seat in the Senate where, given this year’s departures, he might be the most conservative member of the Democratic caucus.

His donors seem to think so. They include a lot of people whose natural home is the Republican Party except, well, the VTGOP is such a hopeless case that there’s no point in giving them any money, or any sharp objects for that matter. Here’s a fairly complete but not comprehensive list of Ledbetter’s sugar daddies and mommas:

• Bruce Lisman, former Republican gubernatorial candidate, fondly remembered in these parts for a 2010 talk in which he described the 2008 financial crisis (during which Lisman was a top exec at Bear Stearns) as “a Darwinian asteroid” and “this thing that happened,” and described investment capital as “the most precious thing in the galaxy,” gave a cool $1,000 to Ledbetter for Senate.
• Mark Bove, noted Burlington-area slumlord, $1,000.
• People named Tarrant, including hapless Republican Senate candidate “Richie Rich,” a total of $5,000.
• Eric Farrell, Burlington developer, $1,000.
• Members of the Pizzagalli construction family, $2,000.
• Multiple-time Republican candidate and twitchy travel maven Scott Milne, $500.
• People named Pecor, of the Lake Champlain Ferries etc., $2,000.
• CB Properties LLC, a corporate entity owned by real estate broker Charles Brush, $1,000.
• Jeffrey Davis, developer memorialized in 1996 by Seven Days as “The Man Who Malled WIlliston,” $1,000. (Yep, he’s responsible for the atrocious sprawl off Exit 12.)
• Adam Hergenrother of BlackRock Construction, $1,000.
• James Crook, private equity investor, $1,000.
• Scott Boardman, chair of the Hickok & Boardman insurance agency, $1,000.
• Phyllis Bissonnette, presumably of the Bissonnette family real estate investment/landlord operation, $1,000.
• Craig Bond, auto parts magnate, $1,000.
• Marilyn Larkin, Burlington realtor, $1,000.
• Charlotte Gardner, Burlington realtor, $1,000.
• Anne Hauke, co-owner of the real estate firm DGH Enterprises, $1,000.
• Andrew Goodman of Signal Partners, an investment group, $1,00.
• Tracy Byrnes, described on her LinkedIn page as, saints deliver us, a “Product visionary for performance apparel and footwear brands,” $1,000.
• Al Gobeille, Burlington restaurateur turned Phil Scott cabinet mainstay, a measly $200. C’mon, Al!

Ledbetter has received a few donations from known Democratic figures including former governor Peter Shumlin, former treasurer Beth Pearce, soon-to-be-former Sen. Brian Campion, But they combined to give less than $1,000, and they pale in comparison to the list of big-business and conservative donors itemized above.

(VTDigger’s article on Ledbetter’s fundraising basically both-sidesed his donor list, saying that he “appears to be benefiting from the support of prominent political figures from two major parties.” That’s kinda-sorta true if you don’t count all the donors who normally show up on the Republican side of the ledger. (It also helps that the story identifies Gobeille only as a restaurateur and former executive, while omitting his years in the Phil Scott administration.) It also reports that Ledbetter drew donations from “a handful of well-known local property developers,” which severely understates the quantity of his support from the broader business community.)

In truth, Ledbetter’s bloated campaign kitty draws almost entirely on conservative figures and business leaders who’d be giving to Republicans if there were any worthy of support. They have given him a huge financial edge over the three incumbents in the race. It remains to be seen if he can leverage that money into a primary victory; he can’t possibly buy $48K worth of yard signs and mailers, and if he invests in TV ads he’ll be wasting most of his money on viewers outside of Chittenden Central.

Ledbetter will also have to overcome the normally huge advantage of incumbency in Senate contests — and his obviously poor ideological fit with the district. (Of course, this district is only two years old and many voters may not even know their senators.) But he’s going all out, and so is his apparent constituency: the well-to-do of Chittenden County.