Campaign finance [View All]

[anigbrowl]

Still no numbers for April released by either campaign, but the news today that Clinton loaned her campaign another $6.4 million in April will surely stoke discussion of this subject again.

"A campaign aide said Clinton gave her campaign another $5 million on April 11, more than a week before the Pennsylvania primary. She then again dipped into her personal wealth for $1 million last week and $425,000 on Monday, one day before the North Carolina and Indiana primaries.

Clinton's campaign reported raising $10 million online after her Pennsylvania victory on April 22. Evidently, the money was not enough and her fundraising was unable to keep up with her expenses heading into Tuesday's contests.

Moreover, Obama has routinely outspent her in primary after primary and has shown little difficulty tapping his vast network of donors. He spent more than $7 million on advertising head of Tuesday's primaries in North Carolina and Indiana to her nearly $4 million."

http://apnews.myway.com//article/20080507/D90GUKGG1.html

Many of us have been, ah, skeptical of the $10 million claim. True or not, it seems very clear that she is running on financial empty. Additionally, some of the ads run against Obama (eg by the American Leadership Committee) are effectively free money for Clinton - although I'm not at all sure that the ALC ad is consistent with election laws, since it mentions a candidate rather than only an issue. I should note that Obama has his own external backers who have spent money to advertise on his behalf, eg the SEIU.

Anyhoo, according to the Clinton campaign she's put a total of $11.4 million of her & Bill's personal fortune into the campaign at this point. Not nearly as much as Mittens (~$42 million or so), but I am still troubled by it. I mean, I have no qualifications whatsoever to run for office, let alone the White House, but if I could just write a check of this size then I'm pretty sure I could pick up some votes too.

what do other people think?