Subscribe by RSSObama Tops Fund Raising, Clinton Raises Half
Surprise! Once again Obama has blown out the fund raising with a $40 million take for the month of March. Hillary Clinton came in second around $20 million.
Here’s the report on Obama from The Politico:
The Obama campaign announced Thursday morning that more than 442,000 contributors gave his campaign more than $40 million in March.
That is less than the record $55 million Obama raised in February, but it’s roughly twice what Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is estimated to have raised in March. She plans to release her totals later this month.
The campaign, which did not release an exact total, said more than 218,000 donors contributed to the campaign for the first time, and the average contribution was $96.
Campaign manager David Plouffe said: “Sen. Obama has always said that this campaign would rise or fall on the willingness of the American people to become partners in an effort to change our politics and start a new chapter in our history. … Today we’re seeing the American people’s extraordinary desire to change Washington, as tens of thousands of new contributors joined the more than a million Americans who have already taken ownership of this campaign for change. Many of our contributors are volunteering for the campaign, making our campaign the largest grass-roots army in recent political history.”
The campaign’s figures:
Total raised in March: More than $40 million
Contributors in March: More than 442,000
First-time contributors in March: More than 218,000
Average contribution: $96
Total contributors to date: More than 1,276,000
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, McCain is now consideraing the use of public financing, story from Washington Wire:
Sen. John McCain said he would consider accepting limited public financing for the general election, even if his Democratic opponent opts out and is able to raise much more.
“Obviously, I would prefer not to have to worry about fund-raising. But it depends on how much we think the opposition is going to have, how much difficulty we would have in raising money. I think we would seriously look at that at the time,” he told reporters on his bus en route to Baltimore Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport from Annapolis, Md.
Candidates who accept public funding get $85 million in federal funding to spend but may not raise additional funds. Those who opt out may raise as much as they want, subject to individual contribution limits.
Luckily for McCain, I think the limitations he’ll face in fund raising can be overcome in this age of media and internet. He can produce campaign ads cheaply, just not run them all over the place. However, there are ways to deal with the lower funds with 24/7 cable news and everything else.
Still, one can’t ignore the massive funds Obama, and Clinton to an extent, continue raising. Obama has money in the bank and continues raising it from a huge amount of donors, most who have nowhere near tapped out their max donation.
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A report was released yesterday that both Obama and Clinton receive secret service protection to the tune of $38K a day per candidate. Obama began receiving this the first of May 2007 at his request, much earlier than any other candidate save Jessie Jackson, who had received numerous death threats. The Agency claimed they were unaware of any threats to Obama, he simply requested it. This secret service protection is paid for out of our taxpayer dollars - like everything else - and by anyone’s calculation 300+ days of protection for Obama has cost taxpayers over 1.1 million hard earned dollars. He’s raising $40 million dollars at least every month from more taxpayers, yet he can’t pay for his own security. Clinton gets ss securtiy as a former first lady, but that has been increased during the campaign (not as early as Obama)and we now pay $38K a day for her as well. We pay nothing for McCain, who has refused thus far any secret service.
At a time when our country is in an economic crisis, should the taxpayers be made to pay this kind of money out of the coffers when both Obama and Clinton spend more than that on media ads every month?
You decide. =)
George Bush is a Millionaire many times over. In this Crisis shouldn’t he also pay for his SS out of his own pocket instead of having the public pay for it?
No Dreadsen, I’m not saying that. He’s an elected official, the candidates are just candidates. Until they at least become the official nominee of their party, I think security should be their problem, not ours.
Babs, I must say that as an Obama supporter, I have truely feared for the man’s life and was relieved to know that the security has been upped for him. I would be truely heartbroken if he was assassinated before the primaries were over, or at all. It’s a legitimate threat; there could be people out there so unwilling to have a black presidential candidate that they would take Obama’s life. I can understand that you may want taxpayer dollars going elsewhere, but I am for his security, and will say the same for McCain and Clinton (albehit I don’t think McCain has much to worry about and I think Clinton already has SS coverage).
I think the donated funds are intended to be used for the campaign; he’s running for president to invest in this country, so I do believe it is fair for the country to invest in his safety.
I’m open to a rebuttal, but I stick by my guns. It’s completely reasonable for Obama to have SS security. We don’t want another Bobby Kennedy situation (at least i know I don’t).
Michelle, at some point it is completely reasonable for them to have ss security - when they are the official nominees of their party. We agree on that. And Clinton does have an ss detail assigned to her because of her former first lady status, which has been increased because of the election, but not as early as Obama. Obama had private security until May of 2007, but then requested an SS detail. My argument is that this was very early into the campaign, even if you justify the candidates to have this, it was premature. If Obama had received the threats that Jesse Jackson did when he ran for President, I could see it. But the Secret Service confirmed that there were no threats reported from the Obama camp, that candidates are allowed the service by request, and approval from a Congressional committee, and they simply received a request and granted it. I’m not even blaming Obama really, for requesting it. It certainly gives a candidate a more presidential look, which is what both Obama and Clinton have endeavored to portray. But the report also stated that Obama had a record number of ss assigned to him with no threats - even more than Jesse Jackson did WITH threats, if the report was accurate.
Secret Service didn’t stop either of the Kennedys from being assassinated, or Ronald Reagan shot, or George Wallace shot. Like McCain said, when the SS could guarentee him they could stop a rooftop sniper, then they’d talk about it. Until then, he said it was a “waste of taxpayers money”. SS can’t do any better of a job than private security, and both Obama and Clinton can well afford it. Our government is in the financial mess it’s in partly due to its huge amount of wasteful spending. Howard Dean has stated in writing that the DNC has “unlimited funds” to spend on their candidate, and Obama is raking in ridiculous amounts of campaign contributions. One would just think that a candidate truly concerned for the “common man” and the tax burden we have on us would either step up, or the DNC with its unlimited funds would, and pick up the tab to get themselves elected. I think each candidate has a responsibility to their own endeavor. Once we elect them, it is our responsibility as taxpayers to protect them. But to spend a projected $84 Million taxpayer dollars to protect what amounts to job applicants is wrong, in my opinion. If they want to apply for the job, great. But they should pay their own way to the interview. We don’t owe them anything - yet.