Obama Draws More Contributors

Yesterday, I noted that one thing that campaign finance reports can show is the broadness of a campaign's fundraising efforts. I noted that Obama had 25 percent more itemized contributions than Hillary Clinton. That list is a segment of the 104,000 individual contributors Obama reported after the first quarter. Now it appears as though Obama has surpassed that first quarter total:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has improved on his stunning support in the race for campaign cash, raising his total number of donors to nearly 250,000 people in the first six months of the year.

The freshman Illinois senator impressed rivals in the first quarter when he reported 104,000 donors, but he surpassed the mark in the second quarter with 138,000 more opening their wallets, the campaign told The Associated Press.

The campaign won't say yet how much the donors have given, but the large number suggests their fundraising will be competitive with the $25.7 million he raised in the first quarter. A campaign official speaking on the condition of anonymity tried to tamp down expectations by disclosing that the average donation in the second quarter is likely to be less than the roughly $247 in the first quarter.

The campaign was announcing a goal Thursday of attracting 250,000 donors by midnight on Saturday, the next money reporting deadline. It was 7,214 short as of Wednesday.

The campaign said it collected 335,953 contributions - meaning that many individuals made repeat donations - and its goal will be to reach 350,000 by the deadline.

As I said yesterday, contributors are not necessarily a representative sample of voting support, but those that give to a candidate will generally support that candidate at the polling place.

I have spent some time in the past few days looking at the front runners first quarter fundraising numbers. More return analysis on that score soon.