Obama Reportedly Raises $32 Million In January

Democratic Senator Barack Obama likes to say his campaign for the 2008 Democratic Presidential nomination is about change — and in January he got LOTS of it…some $32 million in donations.

According to one news report, it’s the largest amount of money ever raised by a Democratic candidate in January. And it will have an immediate impact in advertising on Super Tuesday.

The Washington Post”s lively The Trail blog reports: :

The campaign of Barack Obama will report having raised at least $32 million in the month of January, a staggering amount for one month, campaign manager David Plouffe said this morning.

That included contributions from 170,000 new donors. That brings the campaign’s total number of contributors to 650,000, Plouffe said.

Plouffe said the money came in at a consistent pace throughout the month, but the campaign’s strongest day of fundraising came the day after the New Hampshire primary, which Obama narrowly lost to Hillary Clinton.

That suggests some voters felt that Obamamania and Big Mo were perhaps slipping away, and they wanted to take action ASAP.

“We took a lot of encouragement from that because it showed the resolve of our existing donor base,” Plouffe said.

He said the money has enabled the campaign “to advertise in just about every Feb 5 state at pretty high levels.”

Bloomberg reports:

The money will help Obama compete in the more than 20 states holding primaries or caucuses on Feb. 5, including California, New York and New Jersey. The campaign is going to air commercials beginning tomorrow in the states voting through Feb. 12, Plouffe said. Obama and New York Senator Hillary Clinton are in a two- person race to capture the Democratic presidential nomination.

Obama’s one-month tally is the most ever raised by a Democrat in January of a presidential election year. In 2004, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry surpassed the $32 million monthly total later in the year.

Plouffe said the campaign counted 170,000 new donors in the last month, bringing its total to 650,000.

Bloomberg’s reporters tried to get a comment from the campaign of New York Senator Hillary Clinton but “Clinton spokesman Phil Singer did not immediately respond to a phone call and an e-mail request for information about her campaign’s January fundraising totals. Both campaigns are due to report their fourth-quarter fundraising and spending figures today.”