Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) raised at least $25 million for his presidential campaign in the first quarter of the year, putting him just shy of Sen. Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner, who made a splash with her announcement Sunday that she had drawn a record-breaking $26 million.
Obama appears to have surpassed Clinton in several ways: He reported donations from 100,000 people, double the 50,000 people who gave to the New York senator's campaign. He raised $6.9 million through donations over the Internet, more than the $4.2 million that Clinton raised online.
And of Obama's overall receipts, $23.5 million is eligible for use in the primary contests. Clinton officials have declined to disclose how much of her cash is available for the primaries -- rather than designated for the general election and therefore blocked off unless she wins the nomination -- raising suspicions that she raised less for the primaries than Obama did.
What can I say, but we've got ourselves a major horse race going on between Hillary and Obama. Both candidates have raised about the same amount of money for the election, and you can bet that they have each other targeted in the crosshairs as we edge closer to the Iowa caucus. The WaPost article did provide an interesting detail regarding Obama's fundraising:
Although Obama has essentially built his campaign operation from scratch over the last few months, advisers to rival candidates point out that he has hired skilled fundraising veterans, such as his national finance director Julianna Smoot, not just relying on an organic, grassroots movement to take shape around him.
Still, the data suggested that Obama's strategy of holding low-dollar events in addition to massive $1 million galas had succeeded, at least for now. He held numerous events that cost $25 or $100 per ticket, in an effort to bring in younger, first-time donors who could be tapped again for future donations because they had not yet reached the $2,300 limit for contributing to the primaries. (Donors can give another $2,300 to each candidate for use in the general election).
"This overwhelming response, in only a few short weeks, shows the hunger for a different kind of politics in this country and a belief at the grassroots level that Barack Obama can bring out the best in America to solve our problems," Obama's finance chair, Penny Pritzker, said in a statement today.Clinton, with the help of her high-wattage husband, former President Bill Clinton, raised about $10 million in large events at the end of the quarter. Neither Clinton nor Obama has specified how much cash they will have on hand, after accounting for expenses, when the full financial reports are turned into the Federal Election Commission on April 15.
It is interesting to see just how different the styles of fundraising that both Clinton and Obama have developed over the course of this presidential campaign. Obama has made an effort to target lower donation, first-time fundraisers with his cheaper, $25 to $100 per ticket political rallies. This effort is certainly going to make him popular among the younger Democratic voters here. In contrast to Obama, the image of Senator Hillary Clinton's fundraising would probably be the "massive $1 million galas" which bring in the high-rolling political donations. That is not to say that Clinton would not also attend the $25-per-ticket political rallies, nor would Obama shy away from the $1 million galas. But I do wonder if that is the perception that is starting to formulate within the Democratic voters' minds now.
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