Obama raises $55 million in February; Clinton reports surge in funds
CAMPAIGN '08
Sen. Obama's total may be a monthly record, eclipsing Sen. Clinton by $20 million. But she reports $4 million in online pledges since her key Tuesday victories.
The Democratic challengers for the presidential nomination announced strong fundraising efforts today, as the party continued to struggle over how to handle the sensitive issue of two primaries that were disallowed.
The campaign of Sen. Barack Obama announced that it had raised $55 million in February, $20 million more than Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and an apparent record for a single month.
The announcement came hours after the Clinton campaign said it had taken in $4 million online since the Tuesday victories that revived the New York senator's presidential drive. The money was part of the $6 million the campaign said it had raised online since the beginning of the month while adding 30,000 new donors.
February had been Clinton's best money month, with about $35 million raised. But that was eclipsed by the $55 million announced today by Obama's campaign.
Of that February money, more than $54 million was earmarked for spending in the primaries. Obama announced that 385,101 contributors were first-time donors; to date, the Illinois senator has received donations from 1.07 million donors, far more than any other candidate.
The ability to raise money is just part of the increasingly fierce battle between Obama and Clinton, who are fighting for every delegate and any other advantage as the presidential nominating season heads into its end game.
One complication is what to do about the Florida and Michigan primaries. Millions of voters went to the polls in January, but their ballots were meaningless because the national parties punished the states for improperly moving their primaries to the head of the field. Obama and Clinton agreed not to campaign in either state.
Clinton won both contests; Obama's name wasn't even on the Michigan ballot.
But with about 100 delegate votes separating them, there is increasing attention on the matter, including the possibility of rerunning the races. Elected officials in Florida and Michigan have mentioned the prospect of holding new primaries, estimated to cost $25 million in Florida alone.
The national Democratic Party won't pay for the two states to hold a second set of presidential primaries and urged the states to figure out how to resolve the situation, National Committee Chairman Howard Dean said this morning.
"We can't afford to do that," Dean said on CBS' "The Early Show," one of several media appearances he made this morning. "That's not our problem. We need our money to win the presidential race."
