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Title: Obama raises $40 million in March
Source:
Raw Story
URL Source: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Obama ... _40_million_in_march_0403.html
Published: Apr 3, 2008
Author: Nick Juliano
Post Date: 2008-04-03 12:04:05 by robin
Keywords: None
Views: 13
Barack Obama raised $40 million last month, his campaign announced Thursday. The average contribution, it said, was $96. More than 442,000 people donated to the campaign last month, and nearly half of those were first-time contributors. “Senator 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,” campaign manager David Plouffe said in an e-mailed statement. “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 grassroots army in recent political history.” Obama's opponent, Hillary Clinton, has not yet released her March fundraising numbers, but her campaign says it does not expect to match Obama's haul. Since Obama began his presidential campaign last year, more than 1.2 million people have donated to the campaign. The preliminary numbers released Thursday show his campaign is still being fueled by relatively small donations. He received contributions from about 218,000 first-time contributors last month, according to the campaign. The $40 million figure exceeded expectations that predicted a haul between $30 and $35 million. Clinton is expected to have raised about $20 million in March. Last month's figure is down from Obama's record $55 million haul in February; Clinton raised $34.5 million the same month. Obama's fundraising advantage has allowed him to advertise more widely in Pennsylvania, where the next Democratic primary contest will be held April 22. Clinton's campaign spokesman, Howard Wolfson, said the former first lady's campaign has been outspent 4-to-1 so far in the state, and he predicted Obama would double Clinton's spending from now until the primary there. Clinton's campaign went on the air with its second "3 a.m. ad" in Pennsylvania, yesterday. The campaign would not say how much it was spending to air the ad, only calling it a "substantial" buy that would air statewide. "We don't expect to match Senator Obama ad for ad," Wolfson said during a conference call Wednesday. "We will have significant resources to compete and be resourceful, but we know that Senator Obama will outspend us significantly." With wire reports
Poster Comment: A democrat of Irish-American descent I'm acquainted with at work was a first time contributor to Obama last month. He was leaning toward Hillary a few months ago.
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