Barack Obama raised $55 million in February, $20 million more than Hillary Rodham Clinton and a record sum for a single month in any presidential campaign, aides to the Democratic candidate said Thursday.
Obama's success reflected a sharp resurgence of Democratic fundraising. New numbers showed Republicans lagging behind their rivals and well below their efforts of four years ago. Much of the difference came from the Internet.
John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, has not disclosed his February sum, though his fundraising has been well behind that of Obama and Clinton.
The Federal Election Commission on Thursday disclosed that national Democratic campaign committees were significantly out-raising their Republican counterparts for the first time since the commission started counting amounts raised by party committees.
The Democrats' three main committees -- the Democratic National Committee, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee -- raised $191.3 million in the 13-month period from January 2007 to the end of January 2008.
It represented a 26% increase from the same period two years ago, and an 85% jump from the same 13-month period in 2003-04.
Efforts by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which raises money for House of Representative contests, were particularly strong.
The committee raised $71.5 million in the 13 months ending Jan. 31. That was 57% more than two years ago and $18 million more than the GOP congressional panel raised.
Overall, the Republican committees -- the Republican National Committee, National Republican Senatorial Committee and National Republican Congressional Committee -- raised $186.2 million. That represented a drop of 18% from 2004 and 2006.
One notable exception was the Republican Governors Assn., which raised $21.56 million last year compared with $12.8 million by the Democratic Governors Assn.
Republican National Committee spokesman Alex Conant noted that despite the fundraising gap, the GOP committee had $21 million in the bank compared with $3 million for the Democratic National Committee.
Clinton campaign aides, trying to emphasize what they think is a shift in momentum toward the New York senator, said she had raised $4 million since the polls closed Tuesday in Ohio and Texas.
The money came from 40,000 donors, including 30,000 new contributors, Clinton's campaign said. Obama did not disclose a corresponding number.
