October 19, 2008
Obama shatters monthly fundraising recordPosted: 08:35 AM ET
From CNN Senior Political Producer Sasha Johnson
DUNN, North Carolina (CNN) – Barack Obama’s campaign had a record-breaking September, hauling in over a $150 million last month — a new high-water mark in campaign fundraising history.
In a video to supporters, Obama Campaign Manager David Plouffe said a record 632,000 new donors gave to the campaign, with an average contribution under $100, although several multi-million dollar fundraising events last month did pad that total. Over three million individual donors have given so far.
In addition, the Democratic National Committee raised $49.9 million in September.
John McCain's campaign is operating under the public financing system which limits its spending to $84 million for the general election, although the Republican National Committee is able to assume certain activities on its behalf.
Regardless of this stunning haul — which dwarfs the $65 million raised in August — Plouffe told supporters the campaign still needed more money because “of the slime that we’re getting from the McCain campaign.” Plouffe cited recent attack ads and robo-calls in battleground states and said the campaign needed to have every resource to “fight back.”
“Their campaign is going to descend even more into the gutter,” he said.
Plouffe also said the campaign was expanding its reach to compete “aggressively” in West Virginia and tightening polls in Georgia and North Dakota meant more money and resources could be sent to those two states in the remaining days.
“We can’t afford to make any cuts. We have to execute everything we think is required to win,” Plouffe said of their battleground strategy. “None of us can look back on the night of November 4th or the morning of November 5th and wished we had done something extra.”
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/19/obama-shatters-monthly-fundraising-record/#more-25470
