Fundraisers Vow to Keep Kerry in Financial Race

With a record-breaking period of fundraising behind them, Democrats on Friday expressed confidence they could collect enough money to remain financially competitive in this year’s presidential race.

John F. Kerry, the party’s presumptive presidential nominee, raised more than $50 million in the first three months of 2004, campaign officials said Friday.

He took in an estimated $38 million in March alone, they said. And of the total raised for the quarter, $26.7 million came from Internet donations.

All three figures are milestones for a non-incumbent candidate of any party, according to campaign finance experts.

The Kerry campaign believes it is on track to raise at least $80 million before he officially becomes the party’s nominee at its convention in late July.

The Democratic National Committee, meanwhile, will soon report that its first-quarter fundraising will exceed $27 million, topping its previous record of $26.9 million from 2000.

“People who haven’t given before are willing to give for the first time, and people who have [given] are willing to give more,” said DNC spokesman Jano Cabrera.

Republicans traditionally have a financial advantage over the Democrats, and that remains the case.

As of Friday, President Bush has raised more than $180 million -- the most ever by a candidate for the White House. That total includes more than $50 million during 2004’s first quarter, according to his campaign aides.

And the Republican National Committee raised more than $48 million during the year’s first three months.

Still, the Kerry campaign and the DNC once expected to be lagging much further behind Bush and the RNC in contributions at this point in the campaign cycle.

Anthony Corrado, a professor of government at Colby College in Maine and an expert in campaign finance, said that despite Bush’s huge campaign war chest, Kerry had established that he would be financially competitive.

“It’s not the case that Bush’s financial advantage is going to lock up the race,” Corrado said.

He added that Kerry’s first-quarter haul had set “a new standard for fundraising in the Democratic Party.”

For Kerry, the fundraising results underscored his candidacy’s turnaround. Just weeks before the Iowa caucuses kicked off the Democratic presidential race in mid-January, his candidacy seemed dead in the water.

But Kerry surged in the final days of the Iowa campaign and he won the caucuses. That gave him the momentum to score a string of primary and caucus victories, and he effectively wrapped up the nomination in early March.

Reflecting that success, his fundraising total for 2004’s first quarter more than doubled the contributions he received during all of 2003.

Kerry campaign officials were practically giddy during a morning conference call with reporters Friday to discuss their first-quarter donations.

Mary Beth Cahill, Kerry’s normally sober campaign manager, described the results as “the largest grass-roots uprising in the history of American organizing as measured by donations.”

She insisted that Kerry does not need to match his Republican rival dollar-for-dollar to hold his own in the campaign.

“We’re a viable and competitive campaign financially,” Cahill said Friday. “We’ve always known we’ll be outgunned by the Republican money machine.... We do not need to spend as much as the president does.”

Democratic fundraisers credited an “anyone-but-Bush” sentiment for Kerry’s record haul.

“You don’t have the usual Democratic food-fight going on,” said Kerry fundraiser John Coale, a Washington lawyer. “This is a party that wants to win.”

Coale said Kerry was benefiting from his decision late last year not to accept federal campaign funds during the primary campaign. That would have limited the amount he could have raised up to the Democratic convention to about $45 million.

Kerry opted out of the public financing system in response to the decision by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean to do so. At the time, Dean was seen as the front-runner in the Democratic race.

“I don’t think money will be a factor” in the campaign against Bush, Coale said. “It looked like it would be if Kerry hadn’t opted out [of the federal program], but now there’s enough money to match Bush effectively.”

He added: “The Democrats have never matched the Republicans. And the Democrats won a lot of presidencies.... We have enough. We’re getting enough to do the job.”

According to one prominent Democratic party fundraiser, who spoke on condition of anonymity, the totals raised by Kerry and the DNC are “far more robust than anyone would have thought possible four weeks ago.”

Despite such Democratic comments, Bush spokesman Steve Schmidt said the reelection campaign was confident that “we will have the resources and have a superior message to deliver to the American people.”

On Friday, Bush attended a cocktail reception and dinner in Greensboro, Ga., to thank 550 volunteer fundraisers from around the country for their work

Kerry campaign officials said contributions via the Internet amounted to $2.6 million on March 4 alone, two days after Kerry virtually swept 10 nominating contests on March 2.

Dean, whose campaign last year became known for its effective use of the Internet to collect money, raised about $820,000 on his biggest day online.

The campaign is negotiating with Dean to use its donor database. Even without it, Kerry managed to bring in 245,000 individual online contributions during the quarter, aides said. The average online donation was $109.

The Kerry campaign will start a new fundraising effort this weekend, which will include a full-page ad in the New York Times on Sunday and Internet ads on various sites, said Michael Meehan, a senior campaign advisor.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

The money chase

Contributions to Democrat John F. Kerry surged after he became the clear front-runner for his party’s presidential nomination. Amounts in millions:

*--* 2003 Bush Kerry First quarter $0 $7 Second quarter 35.1 5.9 Third quarter 50 4 Fourth quarter 47.5 5.2 2004 First quarter $50+ $50+

*--*

Sources: Federal Election Commission, campaign officials

*

Times staff writer Maura Reynolds contributed to this report.