Clinton Fundraising Remains Strong (Clinton edges Obama in 4th Q)

[rinsd]

Clinton Fundraising Remains Strong

By John Solomon
Hillary Clinton's fundraising team raised more money than Democratic rival Barack Obama in the final three months of 2007, staking claim to the biggest fundraiser in the presidential race for the second straight quarter.

Clinton's campaign was scheduled to tell major donors and fundraisers in a conference call late this afternoon that her campaign raised more than $24 million between October and December, hoping that news, coupled with Clinton's upset win in the New Hampshire primary, will motivate them to keep growing the campaign's war chest, according to a senior campaign aide who spoke only on condition of anonymity.

Earlier in the day, Obama's campaign announced that its final 2007 quarter fundraising total was around $23.5 million, and he added another $8 million in the first eight days of January. That means both campaigns broke the $100 million fund-raising barrier in 2007, the first time that two candidates have done that in an off election year.

With more than twenty states' delegates up for grabs in the next month, both parties' presidential candidates are retooling strategies on where best to spend their money. Clinton campaign co-chairman Terry McAuliffe told the Post earlier today that Clinton had cash on hand of more than $25 million. Campaign aides were unable to immediately say how much of that money was primary money versus general election donations.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/01/09/clinton_fundraising_remains_st.html

FEC filings should be available on the 15th. Open Secrets and the other contribtuion analyzers shoudl have their stuff up within a few days afterwards.

[hedda_foil]

1. Of Obama's 23.5 million, all but 1 million is for the primaries.

Wait til Hillary's report of dollars donated to the primary vs general election to see what's what. At this point, general election donations aren't particularly relevant as whoever wins the nomination will wind up with tons of donations and new (to them) donors for the general once the nomination is locked down. On the other hand, primary dollars are invaluable because they're desperately needed by all 3 candidates to compete effectively in the huge media markets of February 2. And beyond that, not one penny of general election dollars can be spent before the nomination is voted on by the delegates at the Convention. Anything spent to hold the fort against GOP swiftboating before then has to come from primary donations. That's a long way to go on primary dollars only.