Jim Kuhnhenn, who covers campaign fundraising and media for The Associated Press, has a writeup on the Democratic Party’s presidential candidates:
For months, Hillary Rodham Clinton has been running her presidential campaign as a front-runner, establishing an image of steady inevitability. Barack Obama unsteadied her. By raising a dazzling $32.5 million and outpacing Clinton by $10 million in primary election money, Obama succeeded in making his chief rival look mortal.
Clinton still leads in national polls and is strong in early primary states like New Hampshire and Florida. Obama now leads in fundraising and number of donors _ an impressive 258,000 during the first six months of the year.
…Significantly for Obama, one-third of his fundraising dollars came from online contributors. Of his 258,000 donors, 110,000 gave through the Internet. And of those online donations, 90 percent were for $100 or less.
My italics. Regarding total fundraising for the quarter, CNN says Clinton lagged Obama by $5.5 million during the second quarter:
Over the weekend, Obama’s campaign announced it had raised $32.5 million in the second quarter of 2007, most of which can be used in the primary election. Late last week, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign announced the New York Democrat had raised around $27 million in the same time period, $21 million of which can be used in the primary race.
HuffPo relates that Obama’s advantage in the number of donors was already well-established during the first quarter:
“It’s a matter of pure mathematics,” an Obama fundraiser told HuffPost. “We had 104,000 donors in the first quarter; Clinton had 60,000. And while 75 percent of Hillary’s contributors had maxed out, only 50 percent of ours had. So we had had a lot more potential to grow — and we did.” The fundraising period for this quarter ends on June 30, and campaigns have until July 15 to disclose their numbers. “Even though there are over three weeks left,” a Clinton source told HuffPost, “it will be next to impossible for us to make up the difference. The machine we have at the $2,300 level is a superior machine, but the Obama campaign continues to beat us with small donors and on the Internet.”
As noted in DP post Morris: Hillary May Have A Money Problem, this dynamic was also identified and discussed by Dick Morris.
It’s curious that Obama can have a huge advantage in the number of donors while Clinton continues to hold a solid lead in national polls. (Wouldn’t the breadth of the donor base be a measure of popular support?) NewsWeek gives Clinton a 43-27 edge, while CNN had it at 36-22 a month ago. Gallup’s polling shows large swings every couple of weeks, but since mid-April Clinton’s average lead has been seven points.
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