McCain, RNC report $96 million cash on hand By LIZ SIDOTI
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- John McCain and the Republican National Committee started August with a hefty $96 million, financially flush and strongly positioned to compete with prolific fundraiser Barack Obama and the Democrats.
Republicans have been trying to even out the financial playing field after trailing Democrats in overall fundraising for most of the election cycle.
McCain has been a subpar fundraiser and has lagged the much-more adept Obama in monthly campaign tallies. But the RNC, with big-draw President Bush helping, has trounced its Democratic counterpart in collections. That has helped McCain and the GOP stay competitive financially with Obama and the Democratic National Committee.
The July numbers reflect how far McCain and the Republicans have come.
McCain raised $27 million in July, his largest one-month fundraising haul since clinching the GOP presidential nomination, and had $21 million available to spend, while the RNC brought in nearly $26 million, and had $75 million on hand to compete with the Democrats.
McCain, himself, now has 600,000 donors, while the party announced it had reached 1 million.
By comparison, Obama alone recently surpassed 2 million contributors, giving him a larger pool of donors to hit up for money again. He and the DNC have not yet disclosed their monthly takes.
"Our fundraising continues to be very healthy," Rick Davis, McCain's campaign manager, said in a conference call with reporters, noting that July was the fifth-straight month McCain has improved his cash flow.
Despite lackluster fundraising earlier this year, the campaign's improved money situation has allowed the GOP nominee-in-waiting to keep pace with - if not exceed - his Democratic rival in advertising, including $6 million during the ultra-expensive Olympics and three straight months of multimillions for commercials in 11 battleground states.
McCain's overall advertising budget for August is expected to exceed $20 million, and, by the convention in early September, Davis said McCain is on track to spend some $60 million on TV expenditures.
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