Obama Raised Record $150 Million in SeptemberThe Obama campaign announced this morning that it had raised a record $150 million last month, and had added 632,000 new donors to its total.
The amount shattered the campaign’s previous record from August. The McCain campaign also had a record-breaking month in August, but is now operating with the $84 million provided by public financing for the general cycle and assistance from the Republican National Committee under certain limits.
In announcing the Obama figure, David Plouffe, the campaign manager, said the average donation for September was less than $100. Mr. Obama, however, did hold several mega fund-raisers in September that pumped millions of dollars each into his coffers, including a Barbra Streisand-Hollywood event that alone collected a reported $11 million.
All counted, 3.1 million people have contributed to his campaign, Mr. Plouffe said.
Mr. Obama decided to forgo public financing for the general cycle, while Mr. McCain opted into it.
Further details will be available once the formal filings are submitted to the Federal Election Commission for September. The deadline for those reports is Monday.
(For an inkling of how a sizable portion of the money is being spent this year, The Times’s Jim Rutenberg reported late last week that Mr. Obama is set to break the advertising record established by President Bush’s 2004 campaign — $188 million in ad buys — by early this week. Our interactive ad feature documents the spending and where the ads are being broadcast.)
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/obama-raised-record-150-million-in-september/?hp------------
3.1 million donors, an average donation of less than $100, and $150 million raised in September
alone. The Obama campaign may in fact raise more $$$ than Kerry and Bush did
combined in 2004, which would be what, $700 million?
