Clinton Raises $22 Million, Bests Obama: AP/Gerald Herbert
By Martin C, Newsday, Melville, N.Y.
Oct. 2–WASHINGTON — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton cleaned up in the contest for third-quarter campaign contributions, replacing one-time cash champ Sen. Barack Obama as the period’s top money draw.
“Hillary wanted you to know that this was our best quarter yet,” Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle said in an announcement e-mailed to reporters today. “More than 100,000 new donors. A total of $27 million raised — and $22 million for the primary — substantially more than any other candidate in the race.”
Clinton benefited from a surge in donations in the last half of September, following her long-anticipated Sept. 17 unveiling of a plan for universal health care, according to campaign spokesman Blake Zeff.
So far this year, Clinton has raised roughly $80 million in total campaign contributions, Zeff said.
But the former first lady suffered a fundraising embarrassment last month when she agreed to return $850,000 in contributions donated by Norman Hsu, a member of Clinton’s financial inner circle who was revealed to have been a long-time fugitive from a felony fraud conviction. The $850,000 reimbursement was not reflected in the contribution figures released today.
The Obama campaign downplayed the Clinton third-quarter cash bonanza, saying the Illinois senator nearly matched Clinton in contributions earmarked for the primaries. Obama posted $19 million in primary money, compared to Clinton’s $22 million.
Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki repeated Obama’s assertion that he refuses to take money from federal lobbyists — Clinton has made no such commitment — which places him at a fundraising disadvantage.
“We have raised a historic $74.9 million in dollars available for primary spending, without transferring one cent from any other campaign fund and with no money from federal lobbyists or PACs,” Psaki said.
Zeff said Clinton’s fundraising success was buoyed by twenty low-dollar fundraisers during the quarter, including a $25-per-head fundraiser Sunday in Oakland he said drew 14,000 people, and a $50 fundraiser Sept. 19 at Manhattan’s Town Hall.
He said that helped the Clinton campaign draw 100,000 new donors during the quarter.
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