McCain, RNC: $95 million on hand
Posted: Thursday, July 10, 2008 3:25 PM by Domenico Montanaro
Filed Under:
Republicans
From NBC/NJ’s Matthew E. Berger
The
McCain campaign and Republican Party have nearly $95 million cash on hand combined for use in the presidential race, campaign manager Rick Davis said Thursday. He said the McCain camp had more than $27 million, and the Republican National Committee has more than $67 million.
“I think it bodes well for how we will continue to prosecute the campaign this month forward,” Davis said on a conference call with reporters.
He said the campaign raised $22 million in June, $1 million better than its best fundraising month last month. The campaign’s cash on hand is lower than a month ago, when it had about $36 million available.
Davis said the decrease in available funds came predominantly from an increase in staff and a $15 million advertising buy in June, which he described as triple what the
Obama campaign spent. He also said the campaign is looking to draw down its primary spending by the end of the summer before accepting federal funds for the general election.
He also estimated the McCain camp is spending $10 million a month less than Obama.
Davis said he hopes the campaign and party will be able to raise an additional $95 million by the end of the summer. Including the matching funds, he estimated the campaign would have a total $400 million budget through Election Day.
“We will have significant resources to prosecute a campaign that is very robust,” Davis said, adding he believed it would be on par with the funds available to Obama.
Obama has not released financial numbers through the month of June. At the end of May, he reported more than $43 million available on hand, but the Democratic National Committee has not raised as much as its Republican counterpart.
