Clinton Closes Money Gap With Obama

Clinton Closes Money Gap With Obama

Posted By Editor On February 8, 2008 @ 1:35 pm

Susan Davis reports on the presidential race.

While Sen. Hillary Clinton's camp was dogged earlier this week of reports over a $5 million loan to herself and a handful of staff temporarily going without pay, her communications director told reporters today that they have rebounded and are raising sums that rival Sen. Barack Obama. Howard Wolfson said Clinton has raised $8 million since the polls closed on Super Tuesday and is approaching raising $10 million since Feb. 1. Further, they have expanded their donor base by 75,000.
Clinton

"This is a very important development going forward," Wolfson said, adding that the campaign has overcome advantages Obama had with the endorsement of MoveOn.org and mobilizing its membership, as well as a donor database from Sen. John Kerry's 2004 presidential that Obama's campaign earned along with the Massachusetts senator's endorsement. "We anticipate this will be ongoing and it will continue," Wolfson said of the recent run in fund-raising success.

Obama still appears to have the money edge. Clinton only raised $13.5 million to Obama's $32 million in January, and his campaign said Thursday they had raised $7.2 million in the 48 hours after Feb. 5, poising his campaign to near or match their record-setting January haul.

Clinton's campaign is up with new ads in Maine, Washington, and Nebraska, which are holding nominating contests this weekend. Wolfson said the campaign will also go up with ads in Ohio and Texas next week as a run-up to the March 4 contests there.
WSJ