Obama campaign funds outstrip all GOP contenders

THE “FROM” line in the e-mail box says “Barack Obama”

THE “FROM” line in the e-mail box says “Barack Obama”. I receive at least one e-mail a week from the president or his re-election campaign. They want my money.

It started last summer, when I received an offer of a chance to have dinner with the president in exchange for $10. Thinking it could make a good story for The Irish Times, I sent in my $10, the way one buys a lottery ticket.

At the end of September, I received a chummy e-mail saying: “There’s a chance I’ll see you at dinner with three other supporters sometime soon,” signed “Thanks for doing your part, Barack.” The following e-mail didn’t mention dinner. “So please donate $5 or more before midnight tonight,” it said. “Thank you, Barack.”

Yesterday’s e-mail from Julianna Smoot, the former social secretary at the White House, now deputy campaign manager, told me that President Obama is within hours of reaching the one million small donor mark: “Pledge to match a first-time donor today – then watch the counter as we hit 1 million together.” Sixty-one per cent of President Obama’s campaign funds have come from contributions of $200 or less. On the Republican side, only Michele Bachmann and Herman Cain have received more than half their funds from small donors.

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Figures just released by the Federal Election Commission show the president’s campaign war chest contained $61,403,711 at the end of September; more than eight Republican candidates combined.

The president has raised nearly $100 million to date, compared to $32.6 million for Mitt Romney, the Republican front runner. And President Obama has no Democratic primaries to worry about. Republican candidates must staff campaign organisations in early primary states. This task has grown more complicated because the traditional first states of Iowa and New Hampshire are competing with Florida and Nevada to schedule the first polls in late December or early January. President Obama already has offices in at least 38 states, and his headquarters in Chicago employs more than 200 people.

Wall Street could prove to be the president’s Achilles heel, or his greatest strength. The finance industry is traditionally the single largest source of campaign cash, and this time Wall Street is betting on Mitt Romney. The election commission figures show that employees of the six largest financial firms in the US, including Bank of America and Citigroup, contributed $750,000 to the Romney campaign since April; only $82,000 to President Obama.

But in these days of the Occupy movement, being shunned by Wall Street could work to the president’s advantage. He recently criticised Bank of America for imposing a new $5 monthly debit card fee. “I don’t think any American is impressed when they see Governor Romney and all the Republican candidates say the first thing they’d do is roll back Wall Street reforms . . . and let Wall Street write its own rules,” President Obama’s adviser David Axelrod told ABC television.

Texas governor Rick Perry raised $17.2 million between declaring his candidacy on August 11th and the end of September. But 60 per cent of that money came from his own state, with the biggest donations coming from the oil and gas industries, to whom Mr Perry has promised carte blanche.

At the end of September, Messrs Romney and Perry each had about $15 million in campaign funds at their disposal. None of the other Republicans has anywhere near that much, and Mr Perry’s fundraising dropped dramatically after his poor performance in televised debates.

Mr Romney leads Republicans in both funding and organisation. But he has been unable to muster more than about 25 per cent of support in opinion polls.

Although he had only $1.3 million on hand at the end of September, Herman Cain, now running in second place, says his message and momentum will make up for the lack of money.