Barack Obama Spends Less In June, Saves Resources

WASHINGTON — Barack Obama's army of small-dollar donors gave his presidential campaign its biggest boost in June, contributing more than $30 million in individual sums of $200 or less.

Overall, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee hauled in $52 million for the month, reversing a three-month fundraising decline. He also had his lowest spending of the year, permitting him to build a $72 million end-of-month cash reserve.

"This is the highest amount raised in amounts of $200 or less in the history of presidential fundraising," said Michael Malbin, executive director of the Campaign Finance Institute, a nonpartisan organization that analyzes campaign money.

By comparison, Republican rival John McCain raised $21.5 million in June, with only a third coming from donors who gave in increments of $200 or less, according to the institute's analysis.

Obama's total includes $21 million in contributions from those whose aggregate donations to his campaign during the past 18 months have not exceeded $200. The campaign does not have to itemize those donations.

The boost in giving was a tangible result of clinching the Democratic presidential nomination on June 3.

That so much of his money came in small-dollar donations is noteworthy because it means those contributors are likely to give again _ an important consideration for Obama, who has decided to forego $84 million in public money to spend on the fall campaign.

"These are enthusiastic people who are likely, if anything, to become more enthusiastic as the general election campaign becomes more heated," Malbin said.

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Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who suspended her quest for the White House on June 7, faced a starkly different financial picture. She lent herself an additional $1 million in June to pay vendors, increasing her personal loan to the campaign to $13.2 million. She reported owing vendors $12 million. She raised $2.7 million from donors in June.

Obama reported spending $25.6 million in June, his lowest monthly operating costs of the year. McCain disbursed $27 million, including $1.2 million to a special accounting fund for the fall campaign.

Unlike McCain, who spent more than he raised in June, Obama accumulated cash during the month. While he ruled on the airwaves with ads during the primary season, he refused to match McCain's ad spending in June. McCain devoted $16 million to advertising to Obama's $5 million. Obama is now matching McCain's and the Republican Party's ad spending.

Both sides are also getting outside help from partisans. The liberal group MoveOn.org and the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees spent more than $500,000 on an ad in June that portrayed McCain's Iraq policy as a prolonged presence that would involve a new generation of Americans.

This week, two conservative groups began airing anti-Obama ads. One, by the group Citizens United, is on Fox News promoting a video documentary of Obama. The ad features former Ohio secretary of state J. Kenneth Blackwell, the Rev. Joe Watkins, a Republican strategist, as well as television political analysts Tucker Carlson and Dick Morris decrying Obama's policies and his coverage by the news media.

The second ad, by a nonprofit group called "Let Freedom Ring," has secured time on CNN and MSNBC this week to air an ad depicting Obama as duplicitous. The ad, called "Both Ways Barack" contends Obama is worse than a flip-flopper because "he holds two positions at the same time."

Both groups are organized under IRS rules that permit them to keep their donors anonymous.

"The principal reason why our donors wish to remain anonymous is not because they don't want to be associated with our message, but because they don't want to become targets for other fundraisers," said Colin Hanna, the president of Let Freedom Ring.

The different financial pictures between Obama and McCain reflect two distinct strategies by the campaigns. McCain plans to accept $84 million in public funds for the fall campaign, which prevents him from raising or spending any money above that sum.

In deciding to bypass the public finance system, Obama became the first major-party presidential candidate in three decades to do so in the general election. That means he needs to build up his cash reserves going into the fall, whereas McCain needs to deplete his.

Obama and McCain, meanwhile, are still busy raising money, often for joint victory funds set up with their respective parties.

McCain's fundraising is getting a significant boost from the fund set up with the Republican National Committee. Overall, the RNC, with the victory fund, raised nearly $26 million in June. The RNC had nearly $69 million cash on hand. Though McCain's spending is limited because he accepted public funds for the fall, the Republican Party can raise and spend as much as it wants to help him. Altogether, McCain and the RNC began July with $96 million in the bank.

In clinching the nomination, Obama also helped the Democratic National Committee raise money. The DNC and two victory funds it set up raised $24.2 million in June and had $20.4 million on hand. Obama and the party had $92 million in the bank at the start of July.

Clinton's decision to lend herself $1 million on June 30 underscored her struggle raising money.

Obama has asked his donors to help her reduce her debt. A joint fundraising event in New York earlier this month brought in about half a million dollars for Obama and about half as much for Clinton, according to fundraisers. Clinton's biggest single debt was $5.3 million to her senior adviser and pollster Mark Penn, but aides said she intends to pay off smaller vendors first.

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On the Net:

Obama: http://www.barackobama.com

McCain: http://www.johnmccain.com

FEC: http://www.fec.gov

Let Freedom Ring: http://www.bothwaysbarack.com/

Citizens United: http://www.citizensunited.org/

Comments

[schicklett3]

Senator Obama is the true favorite for President and his campaign earning power proves it. Those five and ten dollar donations add up, and mind you they're coming from people that have very little money.
Hillary Clinton did not manage her campaign well and that tells me she wouldn't manage the country well either.
John McCain - I have nothing to say about him at all other than BARF.

[barackobama4prez]

Just one of the many reasons BHO is most qualified. If we elected based on how they ran their campaign, HRC would come in third behind Gramps.

[VOTER]

McCane looked at his wife, MOB heiress, Cindy, and cried, "Come on, C#@T,

give me more money!"

[loax]

That is called managing your money properly!

[pupbayer]

That's good. I was getting worried the way he was throwing around money with little return on it. Outspending HIllary 3-1 and as much as 5-1 in the primaries didn't exactly get him a landslide and the money he's been spending since he went in general election mode has not allowed him pull away from McCain.

[ApolloniaCreed]

To be fair, he may not have gotten landslides in some of those states, but he definitely closed in on substantial margins in his opponents favor.

[PAposter]

He was also raising enough money to outspend Hillary. He has consistently had a surplus, he is very smart with money, even a little, dare I say, conservative (let's redefine that term), LOL!

[SeanGardner]

This is great.

This means Obama knows how to spend his money. And, its testament to the vaunted "50 State Strategy" that Howard Dean launched in early 2005 - a strategy that Obama was able to benefit from in the primaries and has been able to maximize in the general election. Having boots on the ground, and an army of volunteers (in the millions) means you don't have to spend the money when there is an ocean of excitement behind your candidacy.

And this is interesting because despite not spending more than McCain, and as much as he had spent in recent months, ironically, he is outpolling McCain in Ohio, Michigan, Florida, Iowa and Pennsylvania.; beating him in RED STATES like Montana, Arizona, Virginia, and North Carolina; and crushing him in states like Colorado and New Mexico.

Once again, people are underestimating his community organizing roots, and how he has been able to marry grass roots organizing with internet buzz. Money is needed, but it is not the main ingredient.

But he is good with his money. As president, why wouldn't I trust him with my tax dollars?

[debrouillard]

Again Obama strategy is the difference.He organised his campaign in an inverted pyramidal structure.It took off slowly and growing.This means at this stage the momentum of the structure growing is carrying him through and bcos its an inverted pyramid,its only widening (growing stronger in this respected).
McCain for example has a strategy that is of the pyramidal structure,started strongly and has now passed its peak.In this scenario the structure grows narrower with time(in this respect weaker) So what they are doing now by pumping in too much money is to try and see if they can get a little bit more expansion from a structure that has already reached its limit.