Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's campaigns battled yesterday over their fund-raising prowess and how often they should debate each other over the next few months, a period when they had once expected the race to be all but over.
First, the Obama campaign announced it had raised a campaign chest of $7.2 million since Super Tuesday, when the two Democrats ended in a virtual stalemate, highlighting the need for more campaign cash. Then, the Clinton campaign announced it had raised $4 million since Tuesday.
Because that paled by comparison, they didn't let it stand long. By 4 p.m., the Clinton campaign told donors it had raised $7.5 million online in the first week of February, $6.4 million of it in the 30 hours following reports that the New York senator had to lend herself $5 million in January, when Obama's campaign says it brought in $32 million, way ahead of Clinton's $13.5 million.
Clinton officials spun it as a boon for their fund-raising operation that their candidate needed to prop up the campaign with her personal wealth.
Terry McAuliffe, campaign chairman, told donors that the sentiment he's been hearing from supporters is: "I thought you had all the money you need. . . . I am here for you."
Also, after reports that Clinton senior staff had offered to forgo pay in January, McAuliffe said they are "100 percent paid," although apparently they had offered to do without.
All that still leaves Obama ahead on the money front, and he was happy to tout that it yesterday.
"There's no doubt that she has not generated that kind of grass-roots enthusiasm that we have. It's not for lack of trying," he said on his plane. "What we've done is we've created this base where people send $25 checks and $50 checks on an ongoing basis, and that is an enormous advantage to our campaign."
Meanwhile, Patti Solis Doyle, Clinton's campaign manager, wrote yesterday to her counterpart for Obama, David Plouffe, trying to goad the rival camp into more debates.
Obama told Cleveland's Plain Dealer that he had agreed to two more debates. Officially, there is only one confirmed, on Feb. 27 in Ohio, which votes March 4.
"What we don't want to do is have a debate every few days, given that it is very important for me to actually reach voters, something that may be less important for Senator Clinton to do because she is better known in many parts of the country," he said.
