Obama Passes 1,500,000 Donors

Barack Obama now has 1,500,000 individual donors to his Presidential Campaign. As I've said before - THAT is public financing.

Obama's Financials for March 2008

From DailyKos:

From the report:

6. Cash on Hand at BEGINNING of the Reporting Period 38,833,089.54
7. Total Receipts This Period 42,832,120.65
8. Subtotal (6 + 7) 81,665,210.19
9. Total Disbursements This Period 30,591,210.20
10. Cash on Hand at CLOSE of the Reporting Period 51,073,999.99
11. Debts and Obligations Owed TO the Committee 0.00


Itemize all on SCHEDULE C or SCHEDULE D
12. Debts and Obligations Owed BY the Committee 662,784.55

Itemize all on SCHEDULE C or SCHEDULE D
13. Expenditures Subject To Limitation 0.00
14. NET Contributions (Other than Loans) 233,823,864.26
15. NET Operating Expenditures 183,654,584.56


Obama has raised $233 Million, mostly from small donors.


Where is Hillary " Tonya Harding" Clinton's financial report?

UPDATE:

From The Raw Story

Clinton aides said late Sunday she would report raising about $20 million in March and that she had more than $8 million for the primary available at the beginning of April.

Overall, Obama had $51 million in the bank at the end of March, with nearly $9 million of that available only for the general election.
.................................

Republican John McCain's report showed he raised $15.2 million and had $11.6 million in the bank. The Arizona senator's March figures were his best fundraising performance of the campaign.

UPDATE #2 - Reading a DailyKos Diary on this topic, and I'm gonna say it...her numbers are fishy. I will update it when all the smoke clears and the truth about her financial state is obvious.

UPDATE #3 - Seems as if she has $15 million in debt. Remember the $5 million loan to herself...and here, her filings show another $10 million in debt.

UPDATE #4- The media's take on Hillpatine's debt.

The numbers are very interesting.

Obama Breaks $40 Million Fundraising for March

From Politico.com

Obama breaks $40 million for March


Yet another success of lowered expectations, and well-concealed numbers, as Obama announces his fundraising numbers for March.

The campaign says he raised more than $40 million from more than 442,000 donors, more than 218,000 of whom were giving for the first time. It's a well Obama's barely begun to tap.



More Than 442,000 Donors Help Obama Raise Over $40 Million in March



CHICAGO, IL—Senator Barack Obama’s campaign announced today that more than 442,000 contributors across the country gave more than $40 million in March. More than 218,000 donors contributed to the campaign for the first time, and the average contribution level was $96.



“Senator Obama has always said that this campaign would rise or fall on the willingness of the American people to become partners in an effort to change our politics and start a new chapter in our history,” campaign manager David Plouffe said. “Today we’re seeing the American people’s extraordinary desire to change Washington, as tens of thousands of new contributors joined the more than a million Americans who have already taken ownership of this campaign for change. Many of our contributors are volunteering for the campaign, making our campaign the largest grassroots army in recent political history.”



March Fundraising by the Numbers



Total Raised in March: More than $40 million

Contributors in March: More than 442,000

First-Time Contributors in March: More than 218,000

Average Contribution: $96

Total Contributors to Date: More than 1,276,000

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Methinks the Obama campaign had a little fun this week.

shhhhh

sshhhhh

They pulled the rope-a-dope.

By dropping their supposed number first ($30 million)…because they’ve figured out that the MSM NEVER EVER challenges Clinton on the non-veracity of her numbers, even after the lies have been revealed..

The Clintons had to drop a lie quickly -to keep up with the Obama campaign -that they could plausibly ‘prove’ if challenged about their 'creative math', but couldn’t be too outrageous.

After they cornered Clinton into a number that doesn’t remotely come close to their reality…

The Obama campaign dropped their REAL numbers, which, considering everyone will agree this was his worse month ever….will make the numbers even more impressive.

BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA

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NOTE:Obama has raised over $230 million from individual contributors so far — which is already more than Kerry raised in the entire 2004 campaign!!

YES.WE.CAN.

Obama Raises $55 Million In February

From the Obama Campaign:

EMAIL SENT BY THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN...............

I want to add some more news to David's note about the state of the race.

As you know, we've won 27 of 41 contests and have maintained our commanding lead among pledged delegates.

But today I want to share another staggering number: supporters like you donated more than $55 million to this campaign in the month of February.

That's a humbling achievement, and I am very grateful for your support.

No campaign has ever raised this much in a single month in the history of presidential primaries. But more important than the total is how we did it -- more than 90% of donations were $100 or less, and more than 385,000 new donors in February pushed us past our goal of more than 1,000,000 people owning a piece of this campaign.

From the beginning, this campaign has always been funded by a movement of grassroots supporters giving whatever they can afford. And unlike Senator Clinton and Senator McCain, we have never taken money from lobbyists or PACs.

Senator Clinton has decided to use her resources to wage a negative, throw-everything-including-the-kitchen-sink campaign. John McCain has clinched the Republican nomination and is attacking us daily. But I will continue to vigorously defend my record and make the case for change that will improve the lives of all Americans.

YES.WE.CAN.

Defeating the race-baiting fear monger takes money.

If you'd like to donate, go to BarackObama.com

Remember, you can buy stuff from the Obama store too.

Obama Power Broker New Face of Black Politics

Don't know how I found this article this morning, but thought it was interesting. Points out the true generational divide within the Black Community, and who Barack Obama is bringing to the table that wasn't there before now.

Obama power broker new face of black politics
Joe Garofoli, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, March 1, 2008

Comedian George Lopez told his agent Christy Haubegger a couple of weeks ago that he wanted to campaign publicly for Sen. Barack Obama. Haubegger, an executive with the Hollywood talent firm Creative Artists Agency, knew the person to call: her old friend from the Stanford Law Review, Tony West.

West is one of the California finance co-chairs of Obama's campaign, helping him raise a record $65 million in the state, and he also advises the candidate's national finance committee. And he is more than Obama's confidant. West is part of a new generation of African American politicians who grew up outside the black churches or the civil rights community and now are finding their voice - and political power - in the tone of Obama's campaign.

West's bulging Rolodex, like Obama's, is full of contacts made while studying at an Ivy League university (Harvard) and editing his law school review (at Stanford). That network, in West's case, was augmented by working on six presidential campaigns (including both of Bill Clinton's) and at an A-list San Francisco corporate law firm (Morrison & Foerster).

Like Obama, the 42-year-old West knows from experience how race can affect a campaign - even when the candidate tries to transcend it. Eight years ago, the former federal and state prosecutor was running for a San Jose-area state Assembly seat. It was a nasty campaign, with partisans on both sides hitting hard. Days before the primary, voters received a mailer alluding to false claims that West was living in Oakland. His face was darkened and placed inside an Oakland Raiders logo, to make him appear "as if a gangsta were running," as the San Jose Metro newspaper put it. West lost to Manny Diaz, a Democrat, who eventually was elected to the Assembly.

"I think he came out of that race a little less idealistic," said his sister-in-law, San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris, who has endorsed Obama. West married Harris' sister Maya, his best friend from law school, and they have an adult daughter, Meena. "He is so smart, and he always sees the positive in everything, but that was below the belt."

"I certainly hope that he would run for office again," said former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, who called West "one of my mentees." Brown, who has not endorsed a Democratic presidential candidate, said West "could be, like Obama, one of these candidates that transcends race. He is exceptionally gifted."

West said he lost none of his idealism and dismissed the mailer as the "stuff that happens in politics. I think it says more about the process than it does about the voters.

"I think it is sometimes easier for people to appeal to things that are negative," he said. "It is easier sometimes for campaigns to appeal to things that frighten us. The fact that campaigns may do that, and do it successfully, doesn't make it right and doesn't make it lasting."

More than race

Trying to look beyond racial politics is "generational," said Charles Henry, a professor of African American studies at UC Berkeley and an expert on black leadership. "This is a generation that grew up outside the black churches or the civil rights community. They're less likely to see a racial slight than an older generation.

"They're more likely to have met through elite universities or law schools," Henry said. "They've taken advantage of the gains of the civil rights movement," even if they were in diapers during its heyday.

Henry and other analysts said examples of this generation of black politicians include Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick; Newark, N.J., Mayor (and Stanford alumnus) Cory Booker; and Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Long Beach, who has a master's in business administration and was recently elected from a largely Latino district. Richardson, unlike the other two, supports Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

"Tony's ascension in the various worlds of politics is largely due to the fact that he has always been very meticulous about maintaining his networks - and they are networks that are beyond California," said Sam Rodriguez, an unaffiliated political consultant who worked with West when Rodriguez led the California Democratic Party.

Kerman Maddox, a onetime aide to former Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley who runs his own Southern California consultancy and is African American, said West has shown him the fundraising breadth of the black middle class. Much of the $3 million raised at a fundraiser at Oprah Winfrey's Santa Barbara estate last year came from middle-class African Americans, Maddox said.

"I was surprised at how much money came from African Americans in Southern California," said Maddox, who teaches political sci