N.Y. Senator Bests Rivals With $27M Third Quarter

WASHINGTON — Bolstering her claim to the front-runner’s perch in the Democratic presidential primary, Senator Clinton has posted her strongest fund-raising quarter yet, raising $27 million over the last three months and easily outpacing her closest rival, Senator Obama of Illinois.Mrs. Clinton’s campaign announced her total yesterday morning on one of its Web sites, hillaryhub.com, a day after Mr. Obama disclosed that he had raised $20 million for the third quarter, including $19 million for the primary elections. The former first lady has now amassed a war chest of nearly $90 million for the primary and general elections, including $10 million that she transferred from her winning Senate re-election race last year.Mr. Obama has raised just under $80 million. While Mrs. Clinton has a sizable edge in total, a larger portion of her funds can only be spent during the general election, and her decision to accept contributions above the $2,300 primary limit reflects her broader campaign strategy of keeping one eye on November 2008 even as she battles for the Democratic nomination. By contrast, nearly all of Mr. Obama’s cash can be used for the primary.The Obama campaign stressed that fact yesterday, noting that for the year Mr. Obama has about $2 million more in primary funds than Mrs. Clinton.“More than 350,000 Americans have already signaled the kind of change they want in Washington by contributing to the Obama campaign,” a spokeswoman, Jennifer Psaki, said. “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.”Of Mrs. Clinton’s $27 million total for the third quarter, $22 million can be spent during the primary. More than 100,000 new donors contributed to her effort, her campaign said. Neither she nor Mr. Obama have disclosed how much they spent during the last three months or how much cash they have on hand.The Clinton campaign yesterday attributed part of its strong third-quarter showing to an increase in “low-dollar” fund-raising events aimed at broadening her support beyond the traditional donor base of wealthy businessmen. That included a 14,000-person rally in Oakland, Calif., last week at which the suggested contribution was $25, along with similar events held with big-name supporters like General Wesley Clark and the author John Grisham.The Illinois senator had surprised many by out-raising Mrs. Clinton by more than $5 million in the second quarter, but his total fell off by more than one-third between July and September. Mrs. Clinton’s total rose slightly during that period.The New York senator’s total also has taken a hit following her campaign’s decision to return $850,000 brought in by Norman Hsu, the disgraced Democratic fund-raiser now facing an array of criminal charges.Nearly all the leading campaigns had sought to lower fundraising expectations for the third quarter, citing the slow summer months. But at first glance, Mrs. Clinton appears to have won that fight as well, since her total did not slip. She was buoyed by national polls showing her lead to be widening, along with an aggressive final push that included a contest in which donors would have the chance to watch a Democratic debate and chat politics with President Clinton.With Mrs. Clinton’s fund-raising sum dominated political news yesterday, the leading Republican contenders, Mayor Giuliani and Mitt Romney, decided to wait another day before announcing what are widely expected to be much smaller third-quarter totals.

N.Y. Senator Bests Rivals With $27M Third Quarter

N.Y. Senator Bests Rivals With $27M Third Quarter

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