Are the deep pocket folks that helped bankroll Barack Obama as well as many of the smaller donors now being inspired to donate to Obamas campaign after months of fears that fundraising was lagging? The Obama campaign got some good news:
For the first time since April, Chicago has outraised Boston, with the Obama campaign and the DNC pulling in more than $114 million in the month of August, while Romney and his supporting Republican committees raised $111.6 million.
Obama’s haul marks the first time the President and DNC—which set records for prolific fundraising in 2008—have topped the $100 million mark this election cycle. Romney has hit the figure in each of the last three months.
Obama campaign manager Jim Messina celebrated the victory in a statement emailed to reporters at 12:23 a.m., just 23 minutes after news of Romney’s August totals were reported.
“The key to fighting back against the special interests writing limitless checks to support Mitt Romney is growing our donor base, and we did substantially in the month of August,” Messina said.
The release directed reporters to the @BarackObama twitter handle, which was soon sending out additional factoids: more than $1.1 million donated to the President’s campaign; 317,954 donors were giving to Obama for the first time; 97.77 percent of the donations were $250 or less; the average donation was $58.31.
Romney’s August totals were also his largest monthly fundraising haul to date, boosted, in part, with the naming of Paul Ryan to the ticket. On August 12, one day after the official announcement of the Wisconsin congressman as Romney’s running mate, Romney press secretary Andrea Saul said the campaign raised $5 million.
Will Obama’s fundraising now increase after what is widely perceived as a highly successful Democratic convention that seemingly fired up the Dems and encouraged some wavering voters to take a second look (noted by Obama’s bounce in the polls)?
Romney has all that Super Pac money — far more than the Dems. But another question becomes: will there be a saturation point in negative advertising where the point is made but repetition will not necessarily increase its impact — or credibility?
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.