Obama, DNC gain traction: $53M raised in March
Not on pace with ’08 efforts, but funds grease wheels of next cycle
WASHINGTON — President Obama’s fundraising gained strength in March, as he raised a combined $53 million for his campaign and the Democratic National Committee in preparation for the next phase of the campaign: the general election battle with Republican Mitt Romney.
Obama’s March haul is nearly twice the $29.1 million he collected for himself and the party in January. In all, he has raised more than $350 million in this election cycle for his campaign and various party accounts.
Obama’s camp outlined the fundraising in an Internet video Monday that featured donors who had given as little as $5. More than 567,000 people contributed to the campaign last month. Obama’s campaign, however, has urged supporters to do more, noting that Republican super PACS and other GOPaffiliated outside groups are prepared to spend heavily to oust him.
“We’re all going to have to dig even deeper,” campaign manager Jim Messina said in the video. “It’s going to take all of us working together.”
The campaign did not disclose the size of Obama’s cash reserves at month’s end. Those totals and other details of Obama fundraising will become public later this week when presidential candidates file reports with the Federal Election Commission.
Romney has not yet released March fundraising totals, but he had collected a little more than $75 million through the end of February. This month, he began raising funds jointly with the Republican National Committee, which will run ads and conduct voter-outreach efforts in the months ahead.
The Republican National Committee (RNC), which started the election cycle mired in debt, is showing renewed strength. It raised $13.7 million in March, its best fundraising month of the election and ended the month with nearly $33 million in available cash.
Kirsten Kukowski, the RNC’S spokeswoman, noted that Obama still lags behind his fundraising pace in March 2008, when he raised $42.8 million in his primary fight with Hillary Rodham Clinton without the benefit of the Democratic Party.
Obama’s team counters they are using their cash stockpile to build a national campaign infrastructure.
Republican donors are more energized than they have been in a while, said Fred Malek, a top fundraiser in Arizona Sen. John Mccain’s 2008 presidential bid who now is raising money for Romney. “It’s going to be a record amount of fundraising on our side this year,” he said.
In Romney, “we finally have a proven and experienced private-sector executive who knows how to create jobs,” Malek said. “That’s combined with an abject fear of four more years of President Obama and his policies.”
Republican outside groups, including super PACS that can raise unlimited corporate money, have consistently outraised their Democratic counterparts.
For instance, the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC supported by House Republican leaders, raised nearly $5.1 million during the first three months of the year, boosted by $5 million from casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam. Adelson and his family have donated $16.5 million to help Republican Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign, and the donation demonstrates he also is willing to finance the party’s establishment.
By contrast, the House Majority PAC, working to elect Democrats to the House, raised $1.5 million during the first three months of the year, new filings show.