Obama doubles McCain, raising $52 million in June

Democrat Barack Obama raised $52 million for his presidential campaign in June, more than twice as much as Republican John McCain.

In statements released this morning, the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee announced they had a combined $92.3 million in cash on hand. The campaign reported $72 million and the DNC $20.3 million, a sizable increase since Obama became the presumptive nominee.

The numbers suggest that Obama and the Democrats will be able to match and probably exceed the goal set by McCain and the Republican National Committee of spending $400 million by Election Day.

Obama’s June total was 2.5 times larger than McCain’s reported $22 million and is almost as much as the $55 million Obama raised in March, his campaign’s high-water mark for fundraising. Altogether, Obama has raised nearly $340 million during his presidential run, $12 million of which is earmarked for the general election.

Obama has already announced that he will give up public financing – a loss of $84 million – but had he taken advantage of it, it would have prevented him from raising money from private sources. McCain has agreed to accept public financing, one of his signature issues.

The Obama campaign has used the Internet to generate cash from small donors. The announcement of today’s numbers was accompanied by an e-mail solicitation from the campaign aimed at that donor group again.

The average donation in June was $68, the campaign announced. Donors are allowed to give up to $2,300 for a primary election and another $2,300 for the general.

The most dramatic number reported this morning was by the DNC, which in an e-mail from director of communications Karen Finney announced it raised $22.4 million in June, up from $4.7 million in May.

The committee also announced that it had set up a joint fundraising operation with the Obama campaign to cover 18 states. A maximum of $28,500 can be given by a donor to the party.

Despite the good month, the DNC still trailed its Republican counterpart, which said it raised $26 million in June.

Obama has no scheduled public events today; McCain will campaign in Missouri.

 michael.muskal@latimes.com

 dan.morain@latimes.com