Edwards raises $7 million
Posted: Monday, October 01, 2007 3:12 PM by Domenico Montanaro
From NBC's Domenico Montanaro
Edwards raised $7 million in Q3 and has $12 million cash on hand; the campaign claimed as well to have potentially $22 million cash on hand with the help of matching funds.
Adviser Joe Trippi said on a conference call with reporters that the discussion of public financing started about two months ago and cited an impetus to do it after the lobbying discussion heated up at the YearlyKos Convention in Chicago.
The Edwards campaign has maintained that its goal all along has been to raise $40 million and this, they say, keep them on track as they've now raised more than $30 million. But clearly this is much less than
Clinton and
Obama. The campaign tried to spin hard the decision to take matching funds by railing against Clinton's tactics in raising money from PACs and lobbyists. "There's a distinction between us and Hillary Clinton," Trippi said.
But when asked about the fact that Obama is not taking money from PACs and lobbyists either in raising money, they turned it back to Clinton and even said, "Obama in his Senate race did take PAC and lobbying money."
Earlier in the call, Deputy Campaign Manager Jonathan Prince was more complimentary toward Obama's fund-raising efforts.
"There is tremendous grassroots enthusiasm for change," Prince said. "He’s [Obama] obviously had a very good quarter. We’re happy with where we are. We continue to grow our contributor base. Another 50,000 contributors this quarter. We have plenty for what we need."
