Obama small donors make big comeback

After locking up his party’s presidential nomination, Barack Obama’s fundraising operation came roaring back to life in June, generating more than a million dollars in five days and more than $21 million from small donors.

The amount from small donors represents nearly half of his monthly total and nearly matches what Republican rival John McCain generated for the entire month. During the month, McCain did not have a single day in which he raised a million dollars.


Overall, Obama raised a total $54 million for his campaign in June, compared to $22 million for McCain.

The sums were reported in disclosure reports filed with the Federal Election Commission. An initial summary of Obama’s donations posted on the FEC website Sunday night grouped all of his un-itemized donations of less than $200 on the same day – June 30th. That left the impression that Obama had an astonishingly good — $25 million – final fundraising day for the month and Politico made that the lead of this story.

Turns out, Obama raised nearly $4 million on June 30th, a healthy amount certainly. But the $21 million from the un-itemized small donors, which are those who are not named because they haven’t given more than $200, came in throughout the month and not on a single day. The FEC is adding an explanatory note to avoid such confusion in the future, said FEC spokesman Bob Biersback.

One thing that is clear is that Obama’s vast base of small donors – 1.7 million was the last public count — carries big clout. To date, Obama has reported raising $338 million for his campaign from individuals and 94% of his donations have come in amounts of $200 or less.

In addition to fundraising, the June expenditures offered insight into the different tacks the candidates are taking toward winning the presidency in November.

The two candidates spent about the same amount of money in June — Obama spent $26 million and McCain spent $27 million.

But their priorities were entirely different as Obama began building what his campaign says will be an unprecedented, nationwide ground operation.

McCain in June spent $16 million on advertising, compared to Obama’s reported $5 million. Meanwhile, Obama’s payroll expenses amounted to $2.3 million while McCain’s hovered around $724,000.

Obama’s fundraising total represents a turnaround from a steady decline in monthly income that began after his Iowa upset in January.

It also is the minimum the Illinois senator will need to generate each month between now and November if he is to match the more than $200 million budget the Republicans have set for boosting McCain’s campaign.

The true competitor to Obama will be the Republican National Committee, rather than McCain, who has agreed to accept about $84 million in public financing for his general election campaign.

The June figures filed in disclosure reports with the Federal Election Commission illustrate how tight that contest may turn out to be.

At the end of the month, Obama had $72 million in the bank, compared to McCain’s $27 million. But the RNC reported having $69 million, which gave the Republicans a slight edge over Obama.

Obama began holding joint appearances with the Democratic National Committee in June. But the DNC, which has spent heavily on building state party operations, reported having $20 million in cash at the end of last month.

The traditional Republican fundraising advantage was one reason Obama cited for staying out of the public financing system, which would limit how much he could spend on his campaign.

Obama also said that he wanted to keep the scores of donors to his campaign engaged in his quest.

In addition to taking on the Republican money raising machine alone, Obama also has agreed to help pay off former rival Hillary Clinton’s debt — which grew a bit in the final days of the Democratic contest after the New York senator loaned her campaign another $1 million dollars.

Clinton allies say her primary goal is to make whole the caterers and landlords who did business with her campaign rather than repaying her personal loans. Paying off the more than $5 million owed to former top strategist Mark Penn is also low on the priority list, sources said.

But even those debts range in the millions and the shuttering of her campaign makes it far more difficult to generate the cash needed to pay them.

Clinton reported raising in June about $4 million, not including her personal loan, while having debts of about $25 million. About half of the red ink, $13 million was from the loans to herself while roughly $12 million was owed to outside vendors and consultants.