Campaign restrictions that McCain helped write limit individual donations to $2,300 to a candidate. But donors can give $28,500 to political parties, which can spend unlimited sums on independent campaigns for their candidates.
The money that McCain is raising is being used for his campaign up to the Republican National Convention in early September. Once he becomes the nominee, he can play another card -- public funding.
McCain probably will accept an $84-million federal grant to run his general election campaign. In his filing Sunday with the Federal Election Commission, McCain disclosed that he refunded $2.6 million to donors who had earmarked their money for the general election.
"He is doing everything that is necessary in order to be in a position to accept the grant if that decision is made," McCain spokesman Brian Rogers said.
Republicans expect McCain will have little choice but to take the grant. He would be unable to raise much more in private donations, and could make up at least a portion of the shortfall with RNC money.
Democrats probably won't accept that tax money. They could easily raise more -- maybe twice as much -- for the final fall push.
Obama is fast approaching 1.5 million donors. If each were to give him $100, the Illinois senator would have $150 million for the final two months of the campaign. With that -- plus whatever the Democratic Party raises -- Obama could flood airwaves in swing states.
McCain's aides brush aside concerns that he won't be able to raise enough money, even as they admit he can't match the Democratic nominee.
"It's not about parity. It is about having enough," said Steve Schmidt, a McCain senior strategist.
"Between the two committees, we're going to have sufficient resources," said Frank Donatelli, a longtime Washington lobbyist who last month took a post with the RNC as chief liaison to McCain's campaign. "You have to look at McCain in conjunction with RNC. We have a joint fundraising agreement."
Even with the RNC's success, there are warning signs. Its fundraising is down from where it was four years ago. In the past, the party relied heavily on small donors.
In 2007, however, the RNC raised $45 million in increments of less than $200, down from $56 million four years earlier, federal election records show.
"It is a measure of the dissatisfaction among the base," said Anthony J. Corrado Jr., a professor of government at Colby College in Maine who is an expert on campaign finance.
