The dash for cash in America’s first “billion dollar” presidential race is turning into an unseemly scramble with candidates finding it ever harder to squeeze money from donors.

After a summer in which candidates have trawled former Soviet republics for donors and sent out lonely letters in the small hours begging for benefactors, campaigns were yesterday noticeably reluctant to trumpet their totals.

At the end of the third quarter of fundraising for the 2008 election, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the two Democratic candidates leading the money stakes, are still on course to raise about $100 million (£50 million) each. Mr Obama, who has seen Mrs Clinton extending her poll lead over him in recent weeks, received $19 million this summer, compared with $31 million in the previous quarter.

His top aide, David Plouffe, yesterday preferred to concentrate on the 351,356 individual donors — smashing all Democratic records at this stage in the contest — saying that Mr Obama had “inspired record numbers to take ownership of the campaign”. The trouble is that many of those sending him money appear to be doing little more than buying a campaign badge — called buttons. Less than a fifth of his donors gave him more than $200 in the first half of this year.

Mrs Clinton, who was expected to have amassed a similar third-quarter figure, has the opposite difficulty: most of her big-dollar backers have already given the maximum $2,300 allowed under electoral law. Recent stunts have included offering potential donors the chance to share a bowl of crisps with her husband, Bill, while watching a campaign debate.

John Edwards, the third-placed Democratic candidate who raised about $7 million in the last quarter, has declared a “principled stand” — reversing a previous position — and decided to accept public money.

This will free up about $20 million for TV advertising during the early months of next year when the first primaries are held, but is also seen as an admission that he is unlikely to get the Democratic nomination. Candidates who take federal money are barred from spending between the conventions next summer and the start of the presidential election in the autumn.

A fourth Democratic candidate, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, has demonstrated that his campaign remains viable by announcing a third quarter total of $5.2 million.

The Republicans are in the unaccustomed position of finding it tougher to raise money than the Democrats. Rudy Giuliani, the front-runner, is thought to have generated $10 million this summer. But in a sign of how far he is having to spread his net, his campaign has held fund-raising events in Britain — twice — and in oil-rich Kazakhstan, where the former New York Mayor’s security firm does business.

Fred Thompson, who is running second in national polls behind Mr Giuliani, announced yesterday that he had raised $8 million from a broad base of 70,000-plus donors in the last quarter.

John McCain has recovered slightly in the polls over recent weeks despite sacking most of his staff from a top-heavy campaign. His recent fundraising efforts have included sending out intensely personal letters addressing his plight. “I’m sitting here at 12:33am at my desk — all alone, writing you this letter,” one began, “my wife Cindy has already turned in for the night”. He received $5 million in the last quarter.

Mitt Romney, who leads opinion polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, is thought to have raised $10 million this summer but will once again dig deep into his own pockets to supplement this with a “campaign loan” of around $6 million. Rivals fear that Mr Romney, who has a personal fortune estimated in the hundreds of millions, will loan himself as much as $40 million for the early months of next year when the nomination is likely to be decided.

Price of high office

70 per cent of Hillary Clinton’s donors have contributed the maximum allowed by law ($2,300)
$119,450 raised by Rudy Giuliani from Americans living abroad
$2m was all the campaign cash that John McCain had available at the end of the second quarter
$15m is the amount Mitt Romney is estimated to have loaned to his own campaign
350,000 donors for Barack Obama. This is far more than contributed to Howard Dean in 2004 when his internet-driven campaign generated such excitement

Source: Times archives

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