Obama and Clinton Continue to Raise Cash
Democrats Continue to Out-raise Republicans by 5 or 6 to one!
New York Times, Leslie Wayne, April 4th 2008
Senator Barack Obama raised $40 million for his campaign in March, roughly double the amount collected by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in the same period as both campaigns saw their fund-raising drop from their record levels.
The Clinton number, which is her second-highest monthly total, was not officially released, but was confirmed by an official of the Clinton campaign with knowledge of its fund-raising.
The fund-raising numbers emerged in the midst of a very competitive and costly primary campaign in Pennsylvania. The state’s primary on April 22 will be followed by contests in North Carolina and Indiana two weeks later.
In February, Mrs. Clinton reported raising $34.5 million, or around 63 percent of the amount raised by Mr. Obama that month. In March, the gap widened with Mr. Obama raising $2 for every dollar raised by Mrs. Clinton.
In recent weeks, the Clinton campaign has been dogged by reports that it has been late in paying its creditors, including health insurance premiums for campaign workers, although aides to Mrs. Clinton said the delays were not reflective of a cash squeeze.
The $40 million raised in March brings Mr. Obama’s total to $237 million, compared with $193 million for Mrs. Clinton.
The financial differences are sharper in terms of cash available for the nominating contests and their campaign debts. At the end of February, Mr. Obama, of Illinois, had $31.5 million in cash available, compared with $11.7 million for Mrs. Clinton, of New York. In addition, the Obama campaign is nearly debt-free, compared with a debt of $8.7 million for the Clinton campaign.
The Obama campaign reported that more than 442,000 people contributed to the campaign in March, with more than 218,000 giving for the first time. That compares with the more than 385,000 people who gave for the first time to Mr. Obama in February. The campaign said the average contribution in March was $96 and the total number of contributors to date was 1,276,000. Click here to read more in the NY Times.