Fundraising: $40 mil vs. $20 mil
Posted: Friday, April 04, 2008 9:01 AM by Domenico Montanaro
This Washington Post headline about the money may say more than was intended: "Clinton Camp Feels Spent, and Outspent."
The Los Angeles Times: "Clinton's financial troubles returned to the forefront of the Democrats' White House marathon on Thursday as Barack Obama reported raising $40 million last month -- double what the New York senator collected. Clinton's $20-million take would be staggering in any other race. But she faces a rival who has shattered fundraising records, and this latest benchmark highlights Clinton's broader difficulties in catching up to the Illinois senator in the protracted nomination fight."
“Obama's haul also buttressed his argument to Democratic superdelegates, who will probably decide the nominee, that he has built a vast network of donors and volunteers that they wouldn't want to lose by denying him the nomination. ‘His ability to raise more money than Hillary Clinton is part of the handicapping that is going on by superdelegates,’ said Steve Murphy, a Democratic consultant who worked on Bill Richardson's presidential campaign but who is now unaligned.”
The biggest development on the fundraising front may be McCain's decision to return all of the general election checks he's collected, paving the way for him to accept public financing when he officially is nominated in early September. "McCain's campaign, in letters to contributors, is asking supporters to write new checks to a special fund created to help the Arizona senator pay legal and accounting expenses related to compliance with the public funding system.”
“The move is largely procedural, and McCain's campaign said yesterday that it has not yet decided whether to accept public funding or to raise money on its own for the November presidential election. But the decision to return checks -- which was made as the Democratic candidates announced raising $60 million combined in March, nearly as much as McCain had raised for the entire campaign through February -- indicates that McCain is laying the groundwork for doing so."
McCain can still raise an unlimited amount of money for his "primary" campaign, which goes through the GOP convention. Then, if he chooses, he'll have less than 60 days to spend approx. $85 million. The question is whether Obama decides to follow suit. The campaign seems genuinely undecided.
