San Luis Obispo Tribune, CA
04-04-07
Obama threatens Clinton's hope of the Democratic nomination
By Margaret Talev
McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON – Sen. Barack Obama’s bombshell announcement Wednesday
that his presidential campaign already has raised $25 million grabbed the political
world’s attention and threatened Sen. Hillary Clinton’s hope of locking up the
Democratic nomination early.
The first-quarter showing for the first-term senator from Illinois came closer than
expected to Clinton’s announcement Sunday that she’d raised a record $26
million over the same period.
Strategists said Obama’s total instantly established him as a serious threat to
Clinton and signaled the challenges that former North Carolina Sen. John
Edwards and several other Democrats with less money face as they compete for
the 2008 presidential nomination.
“With the amount of money and donors they each have, there’s not much oxygen
left for anyone but the front-runners,” said John Lapp, a Democratic strategist
who isn’t connected with either the Obama or Clinton campaign.
Obama’s campaign also reported that his funds came from more than 100,000
donors, twice the number that Clinton reported for the first quarter.
That suggests that Obama may be building a broader network of supporters than
Clinton, but details about their donors won’t be clear until the campaigns’ full
reports are released in coming weeks.
The reports must be submitted to the Federal Election Commission by April 15.
Half of Obama’s donors gave relatively small amounts via the Internet - $6.9
million collectively, or an average of $138 each. An Obama spokeswoman
declined to elaborate on the other 50,000 donors who gave most of the money.
Obama has ruled out accepting contributions from political action committees
and lobbyists. Donor contributions are limited by law to $2,300 each for the
primary season and the general election.
While Clinton’s team has not said how much of her total is reserved for the
general election, Obama’s campaign said all but $1.5 million of the $25 million
could go to the primary election. Edwards is running third in the Democrats'
"money primary;" he reported raising $14 million in the year's first quarter.
Among Republicans, Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, led the
first-quarter money chase with $21 million. Rudy Giuliani, the former New York
mayor, took in $15 million and Arizona Sen. John McCain’s team has
acknowledged disappointment at having raised $12.5 million.
Obama’s finance chairwoman Penny Pritzker said Wednesday that the money
raised by the campaign so far represents an “overwhelming” response that
reflects Obama’s support among grassroots activists and “shows the hunger for a
different kind of politics in this country.” Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis
Doyle downplayed the development, saying the Clinton campaign is “thrilled” with
its own success and congratulates Obama “and the entire Democratic field” on
fund-raising results.
Obama’s announcement came as he campaigned in Iowa, where Steffen
Schmidt, a professor of political science at Iowa State University, suggested
that “Hillary Clinton’s campaign is freaked out” by the news.
“They were going to suck everything dry and there wasn’t going to be any oxygen
left. They’re going, ‘What’s happening? Why are all these Democrats abandoning
the Clinton juggernaut?
“Hillary Clinton has been a household word for eight years in the White House
and six years in the Senate, and Barack Obama came from essentially sort of
nowhere like a falling star,” Schmidt said. “It is very dangerous for Hillary Clinton
because . . . there are lots of people in the Democratic Party saying Hillary
Clinton is not elect-able, is divisive, that you don’t know who the real Hillary
Clinton is.”
Schmidt said that although Edwards hasn’t raised as much as Obama or Clinton,
the recent attention given Edwards in light of his wife’s fight against cancer and
the couple’s decision to run anyhow could capture voters’ attention and give him
a boost.
“It’s not too late for anybody,” Schmidt said. “Money isn’t everything in politics.”
(Matt Stearns contributed to this report.)