Obama Announces Total Campaign Chest of $80 Million
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

WASHINGTON — Senator Obama’s $19 million in fund-raising receipts for the third quarter signals a steep drop-off from his haul in the previous quarter, but it should keep his presidential campaign coffers well-stocked deep into next year’s Democratic primary battle.
The freshman Illinois senator has proved to be a fund-raising juggernaut in the first nine months of the year, amassing nearly $80 million in total. He could not keep pace, however, with the $32.5 million mark he set from April to June, when he bested every Democratic and Republican candidate, including the formidable Senator Clinton.
Mrs. Clinton’s campaign did not release its third quarter total yesterday, but based on estimates her aides provided last week, it is expected to be similar to Mr. Obama’s. Almost all of the leading campaigns have warned that their totals for the three-month period ending on September 30 would be lower because it included the summer months, when top donors are on vacation.
In Mr. Obama’s case, some also suggested that Mrs. Clinton’s widening lead in national polls had prompted a slip in his fund-raising capability.
The Obama campaign, not surprisingly, took a different view, focusing on the 93,000 new donors it picked up in the third quarter to rebut the notion that the nomination is Mrs. Clinton’s to lose.
“Many in Washington have spent the last weeks declaring the outcome of this race to be pre-ordained, and the primary process a mere formality,” Mr. Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, said in a statement. “Yet, in this quarter alone, 93,000 more Americans joined our campaign, because they desire real change and believe Barack Obama is the one candidate who can deliver it.”
The Obama campaign did not say how much money it had spent or how much cash it had on hand. For both Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama, the bottom line is that each will have plenty of money to spend not only in the early primary states but also in the larger contests on February 5, when voters in New York, California, New Jersey, and other states go to the polls.
Despite the personal fall-off, Mr. Obama’s third quarter total dwarfed other White House contenders on both sides of the aisle. The campaign of John Edwards reported raising $7 million, bringing his total for the year close to $30 million. His receipts have fallen since the first quarter, however, and late last week he announced that he would accept public matching funds for the primary campaign.
Governor Richardson of New Mexico reported raising $5.2 million for the quarter, and an aide to Senator Biden of Delaware said he had taken in just under $2 million. Aides to Senator Dodd of Connecticut did not release a total yesterday.
In a sign of the wide fund-raising gap between Democrats and Republicans in the campaign thus far, Mr. Obama’s third quarter sum was more than double that of the newest Republican hopeful, Fred Thompson, who officially joined the race amid great fanfare a month ago. An aide to Mr. Thompson said yesterday that the former Tennessee senator will report raising more than $8 million. The number will allow Mr. Thompson to mount a competitive campaign, but it is less than the average quarterly intake of the leading Republican contenders, Mayor Giuliani and Mitt Romney. Messrs. Giuliani and Romney did not release third quarter totals yesterday, and neither did a former Arkansas governor, Mike Huckabee. News reports had pegged Senator McCain’s tally for the period at $5 million, but a spokeswoman for his campaign yesterday said flatly that the number was “incorrect.” She would not disclose his total. Mr. McCain’s fund-raising efforts are being scrutinized closely after his campaign nearly went broke following the second quarter in July.