Obama Adds 1.5 Million New Donors In 1 Month
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Money
Looks like breaking his pledge to take public financing is working out better than expected.
Interviewed on MSNBC, Obama strategist David Axelrod revealed that 4 million individuals have now donated to the Obama camp.That’s up from 2.5 million last month, meaning — if our math is correct — that 1.5 million new people gave money to Obama. So how big will Obama’s September fundraising haul be? It looks like it might be BIG. Will it top the 100-million mark? (1.5 million new donors at 100 a pop… Well, you get the math.)
This all perhaps explains how Obama outspent McCain by a nearly 3-to-1 margin last week, per data from the Wisconsin Advertising Project.
We still don’t know what Obama’s haul for September is, but with those new donor numbers it has to be a record. But 100 million? Well, that would be intense, but I think it’s unlikely. My guess is more like $75M, which is still massive.
What’s more, with 4 million donors now in his database, Barack Obama is now hands down the most powerful Democrat in the country. And if he wins the election, which is seemingly 90% sure at this point, he will have built a structural advantage for a Democratic majority for years to come.
Maybe all that time as a community organizer was more useful than people originally thought.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack, Money. 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.
October 8th, 2008 at 9:22 am
Well I can Vouch for this number of donors. I am a democrat and all of my friends and family have been donating to Senator Obama. I think the diference for the democrats is that most of people I know weren’t ever asked to donate. I was always unaware and believed fundraising meant a commitment of large denominations. Notso the people can donate 25.00 or less. This is such an important election and the republicans have threatened ou security by nominating such an elderly candidate, whose running mate is clearly unqualified. I never thought I’d see the day when being educated and intelligent was a put down. Since when? Ms. Palin is the most dangerous candidate in history, small, mean mind.
October 8th, 2008 at 12:23 pm
Obama never pledged to take public financing. He agreed to pursue an agreement with the McCain campaign. But the McCain campaign was unwilling to rein in the 527s. leaving Obama at too much of a disadvantage to consider using public funds. McCain not only criticized Obama in February for not committing to public financing, but he also criticized him for flip-flopping on the issue and the lazy media ran with that narrative.
What always gets me is how silly people are about certain issues. Obama forgoing $84M in public funds and financing his own campaign through small donations from his supporters is a great thing, yet you choose to mock it. That’s just buying into Republican spin, which thankfully in a month we will begin to see much less of as their party is reduced to secondary status.