Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Clinton Money Woes

This is not a sign of a health campaign: Clinton lends her struggling campaign $6.4 million :
The money more than doubled Clinton's personal investment in her bid for the Democratic nomination. She gave her campaign $5 million earlier this year.

A campaign aide said Clinton gave her campaign another $5 million on April 11, more than a week before the Pennsylvania primary. She then again dipped into her personal wealth for $1 million last week and $425,000 on Monday, one day before the North Carolina and Indiana primaries.

Clinton's campaign reported raising $10 million online after her Pennsylvania victory on April 22. Evidently, the money was not enough and her fundraising was unable to keep up with her expenses heading into Tuesday's contests.
Additionally, Clinton has $10.3 million in debts.

I always thought that the longer the campaign went on, the more likely it was the Clinton would be in more trouble, not only from the nomination standpoint but from her sheer ability to compete.

The truth is that Hillary Clinton has lots of money in teh bank, she just can't touch (and must refund it) unless she wins the nomination. Clinton has raised lots of money for the general election, which according to a ruling by the FEC last year, is permitted. The ironic thing is that it was Obama's campaign that asked for permission to raise money for the general election even before the nomination fight began. Hillary Clinton embraced the idea wholeheartedly. The result is that she has relied heavily on big dollor donors who are now tapped out (and reportedly tiring of the barrage of solicitation calls and pressure to raise more). Obama, who has raised some general election cash, has raised far less that is earmarked solely for the general election and has a vast small dollar donor base who can regularly contribute in small amounts.

I fault Obama for his politics, but his fundraising operation is first class and state of the art.

No comments: