Clinton’s win helps boost coffers
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton reported a $1.1-million fundraising boost from her Democratic primary win in New Hampshire, and other top finishers in both political parties got big infusions of campaign money, virtually guaranteeing that the 2008 presidential campaign will exceed its already high-priced expectations.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who finished second behind Arizona Sen. John McCain in New Hampshire’s GOP contest, reported a whopping $5 million in new funds after a nationwide appeal. McCain has raised more than $1 million so far this month, said spokesman Brian Roberts, adding that Wednesday was the senator’s largest fundraising day of the campaign.
FOR THE RECORD:
Campaign fundraising: A Jan. 10 article in Section A on infusions to candidates’ coffers quoted Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis, a volunteer fundraiser for Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign, as saying: “Calmer people raise more money.” The quote should have read, “Call more people; raise more money.” —
The precise amounts of each campaign’s contributions won’t be known until January fundraising figures are filed with the Federal Election Commission. With the primary and caucus season in full swing, the campaigns need all the money they can get.
“We have tens of millions in the bank at the end of the year, with money coming in,” Clinton campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe said in a conference call Wednesday with members of the Clinton finance team. Sounding hoarse but ebullient, he said the campaign had received more than $1.1 million in contributions after Clinton made her victory speech Tuesday night. An additional $5 million has been pledged this week as well, he said.
For the fourth quarter of 2007, he said, the New York senator’s campaign will report more than $24 million in contributions for the primary campaign, McAuliffe said.
Earlier Wednesday, Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign manager, David Plouffe, announced that the Illinois senator’s campaign had raised $22.5 million for the primary election during the last quarter of 2007. In the hours after the polls closed in New Hampshire, Obama, who finished 3 percentage points behind Clinton, received $500,000 in online donations.
Romney portrayed the $5 million in new financial commitments as evidence of his ability to match the Democrats in fundraising.
“The success of today’s events shows a continued belief that I am the only Republican candidate who can match up against the Democrats in the fall,” he said late Wednesday in a prepared statement.
A fundraising appeal for a $1,000-a-ticket Obama event in Chicago tonight makes reference to the New Hampshire results: “After last night, it is obvious we are in for a tough fight. Now is the time we need your support,” the invitation reads.
Obama is scheduled to head to California next week for fundraisers -- in Pacific Palisades on Wednesday and in Atherton and San Francisco on Thursday.
Clinton has not firmed up her next fundraising swing through California.
But with the state seen as a key battleground for the Democrats, she is expected to be there numerous times before the Feb. 5 primary.
Steve Westly, one of Obama’s key fundraisers in the state, predicted that the two leading Democrats would “plant themselves in California” in coming days.
“She is raising a million dollars a day. We’re raising about a million a day,” said Westly, a former Democratic candidate for governor, who is co-host of the Atherton event for Obama with others, including investment banker Bradford Koenig.
During Wednesday’s conference call by Obama’s national finance team, Westly said the “message is that it is a dead heat.”
The money bounce that Obama got after his victory in the Iowa caucuses last week has rebounded to Clinton after Tuesday’s New Hampshire results.
“Everyone wants to be with a winning campaign,” said Chad Griffin, an aide in Bill Clinton’s White House and a fundraiser in Los Angeles for Hillary Clinton. “There was a whole new burst of energy that came into the campaign.
“Hillary’s performance was tremendous. It is certainly a boost to fundraising. It makes fundraising calls much more pleasant.”
Now that Clinton has won one state, some of the pressure that had built after her third-place finish in Iowa has been lifted from the people who have been raising money for her.
“Calmer people raise more money,” said Sacramento developer Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis, who held two fundraising events last year for Clinton.
Hamburger reported from Washington and Morain from Sacramento.
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