source: Seattle Times
WASHINGTON — President Obama's re-election campaign raked in $86 million in the second quarter of the year, far eclipsing the amounts raised by his Republican opponents and bolstering his accounts for an ongoing clash with well-funded GOP-allied groups.
The haul highlighted the fundraising advantages of incumbency — the entire field of Republican candidates is expected to report raising about $35 million combined.
Details about how Obama and the other candidates have been raising and spending campaign cash will be made public Friday, when the campaigns file reports with the Federal Election Commission. Obama's report alone is expected to be more than 15,000 pages long.
Obama campaign manager Jim Messina noted that the president will not only have to contend with GOP candidates but the better-funded outside groups, which can raise and spend undisclosed amounts of money. In recent months, groups aligned with Republicans have poured tens of millions of dollars into unusually early and expensive ad campaigns aimed against Obama and Democrats.
Obama raised $47 million through his presidential campaign and $38 million jointly with the Democratic National Committee (DNC), which can collect much larger sums. The record for any quarter in a pre-election year is $50 million, achieved by George W. Bush in the third quarter of 2003.
Messina said the campaign received contributions from 550,000 individuals, more than the total number of donors who contributed in all of 2007. The vast majority of contributions — 98 percent — came in the form of donations of $250 or less, Messina said.
But wealthy donors also played a role. In recent months, the campaign has reinforced efforts to court large-dollar donors, organizing a series of events with the DNC.
Obama's closest competitor in the GOP field, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, says he will report $18 million collected during the last three months. In addition, an independent group supporting Romney says it has raised more than $12 million this year.
