Is Obama Having Fundraising Problems ?
By Doug Mataconis | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Democrats, McCainBack in June when Barack Obama announced that he was opting out of the public campaign financing system, it seemed like a smart move. After all, he was pulling in tens of millions of dollars even as early as the second quarter of 2007, raised $ 32 million in January 2008, pulled in an astounding $ 55 million in February, had $ 42 million in the bank in April, and then pulled in another $ 32 million by the time April was over. When he decided to opt-out of the public financing, there was some thought that Obama had the potential to raise as much as $ 300 million for the General Election.
Now, it seems, that the rise of the McCain/Palin ticket, combined with what seems to be diminished enthusiasm on the Demcoratic side, it looks like the Obama campaign is finding raising the money needed to run a General Election campaign without relying on public matching funds to be a more difficult job than they anticipated:
After months of record-breaking fund-raising, a new sense of urgency in Senator Barack Obama’s fund-raising team is palpable as the full weight of the campaign’s decision to bypass public financing for the general election is suddenly upon it.
Pushing a fund-raiser later this month, a finance staff member sent a sharply worded note last week to Illinois members of its national finance committee, calling their recent efforts “extremely anemic.”
At a convention-week meeting in Denver of the campaign’s top fund-raisers, buttons with the image of a money tree were distributed to those who had already contributed the maximum $2,300 to the general election, a subtle reminder to those who had failed to ante up.
The signs of concern have become evident in recent weeks as early fund-raising totals have suggested that Mr. Obama’s decision to bypass public financing may not necessarily afford him the commanding financing advantage over Senator John McCain that many had originally predicted.
(…)
the campaign is struggling to meet ambitious fund-raising goals it set for the campaign and the party. It collected in June and July far less from Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s donors than originally projected. Moreover, Mr. McCain, unlike Mr. Obama, will have the luxury of concentrating almost entirely on campaigning instead of raising money, as Mr. Obama must do.
The Obama campaign does not have to report its August fund-raising totals until next week, so it is difficult to tally what it has in the bank at this point. A spokesman said that August was its best fund-raising month yet and that the campaign’s fund-raising was on track. But the campaign finished July with slightly less cash on hand with the Democratic National Committee compared with Mr. McCain and the R.N.C. The Obama campaign has also been spending heavily, including several million more than the McCain campaign in advertising in August.
(…)
The Obama campaign set a goal in mid-June of raising $300 million for the campaign and about $150 million for the Democratic Party over four-and-a-half months, fund-raisers said. As of the end of July, however, the Obama campaign was well short of the $100 million a month pace it had set, taking in about $77 million between the campaign and the party that month.
It is not yet clear whether the Obama campaign will be able to ratchet up its fund-raising enough in the final two months of the campaign to make up the difference.
Even Mr. Obama’s fund-raisers in Illinois were admonished in an e-mail message last Thursday to step up their efforts to “show the other regions that his home state still has it.” The donors, who were also reminded they had each promised to collect $300,000 for the campaign, were asked to raise $25,000 each for an event on Sept. 22 at a Chicago museum.
If these reports end up being true, and given the fact that the Republican base has clearly been energized by the selection of Sarah Palin as the Vice-Presidential nominee, then Barack Obama’s decision to opt-out of public financing may not give him the advantage he thought it would.
Cross-posted at Below The Beltway
This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 9th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack, Democrats, McCain. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
September 9th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
One problem is sheer exhaustion. Isn’t this damn thing over yet?
September 9th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Keep believing your bad logic. Your assumptions are flawed.
Fighting terrorists in Iraq requires strike teams, and good intelligence. It does not require occupation.
A strong government in Iraq is the best response to Iranian influence. The surge did not accomplish this. I believe that only the threat of leaving will cause the necessary political reconciliation needed to strengthen and stabilize Iraq against Iranian influence.
Our occupation only serves to recruit new terrorists against the United States.
Moreover, ending our dependence on the products of the middle east may also be an effective tactic. The less we meddle in their affairs to pursue our oil interests, the less we stay on their minds.
Your assumptions are incorrect, thus while the form of your logic is correct, your argument is truly a house of cards.
September 9th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Obama will still out raise McCain. The question is whether he out raises both McCain and the RNC. that was always going to be a tall order and public financing was not going to do it. Parity would be enough.
September 9th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
He raised between 8 to 10 million dollars in a single day last week
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/0908/Palin_raising_for_Obama_.html?showall
(after Plain’s speech) I don’t think he’s doing that badly.
September 9th, 2008 at 1:14 pm
Consider this new reversal from Barack Obama:
Just as Barack once pledged he would recieve public financing, and that he would not take soft money from lobbyists, he also rallied against 527’s. Well, the anointed purveyor of “New Politics(TM)” reversed his position on campaign ethics once again in order to suit his desire to win the white house in ‘08.
Change!!!
September 9th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
If this is true, then it sure deserves to be filed under “brought that shit upon himself” doesn’t it? Obama played the virtue card with his early pledge to play by the rules, and then made the predictable and seemingly crafty but obviously self-serving decision to opt out and try to spin away his lack of fealty to what was heretofore a predictable liberal principle.
So if it bites him in the arse, he can’t blame anyone else. However, there might be some comedy value in watching his partisans now claim “no fair.”
September 9th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Doug,
I can certainly understand that McCain is doing better than expected with his game changing move last week and the resulting enthusiasm generated among his supporters. Since they were caught flat-footed, it might have raised the bar on what the Obama campaign now thinks they need to raise.
But I don’t understand why there would be “diminished enthusiasm on the Demcoratic side”. Casual observation is that they seem just as
worshipfulenthusiastic as ever. Not sure if believe the NYT reporting there. Unless it is an effect of having the “inevitability” bubble burst.Anyway, I expect the campaign regrets spending all that money on having a Romney-centric attack campaign already produced, qued up and ready to roll.
September 9th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
If he hadn’t “opted out” of defending the Fourth Amendment, he’d still be getting $40/month from me.
Instead, it’s going to the ACLU, the EFF, and AcoutabilityNowPAC.
September 9th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
If Obama is running short on his campaign financing, he can always take another trip to Europe and get them fired up and beg from them. They are responsible for huge amounts of campaign funds raised under the reportable amount. I know everybody say no he can’t do that, that is illegal. WAKE UP AMERICA! I personally know about a hundred or so Europeans who have donated online, braged about it and each knows hundreds more that have donated. So where there are a few hundred, we know there must be a few thousand or even a million.
September 11th, 2008 at 9:13 am
ChiChi:
The way it works typically, is that you can donate online, and the donation goes through, but it triggers a refund when the background check demonstrates they aren’t citizens.
September 14th, 2008 at 8:17 am
August = $66 million plus 500,000 new contributors.
It seems the narrative of BHO’s failure is more interesting than the fact of his success.