65,000 new donors help Obama raise $51m in July

The Obama campaign said yesterday that it received more than $51 million in July - including contributions from 65,000 new donors - slightly less than the previous month.

The report on donations to Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, followed by one day figures made public by the McCain campaign, which took in a more modest $27 million last month.

Still, July was the best fund-raising month ever for John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, and the fifth month in a row that donations to his campaign exceeded those of the previous month.

The Obama campaign said it had $65.8 million on hand, compared with McCain's $21.4 million at the end of July.

Although neither his bank balance nor his July donations were as robust as Obama's, McCain can count on an infusion of $84 million in public money after the Republican National Convention. Obama has chosen to forgo public financing, so he has greater spending flexibility, but he must collect every cent himself.

NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE

Fla., Mich. delegates still a sore issue for Democrats
LANSING, Mich. - Last year, Michigan and Florida Democrats were told they would lose all their votes at the Democratic National Convention if they moved up their presidential primaries.

Now, the same committee that stripped Florida and Michigan of their delegates for violating party rules by holding early primaries is poised to suggest those delegates regain their full voting powers when the Denver convention starts in eight days.

Michigan held its presidential primaries Jan. 15, and Florida did the same Jan. 29, breaking national Republican and Democratic rules that said most states could not hold their 2008 primary contests before Feb. 5.

Michigan and Florida said they were more representative of the country and deserved an early say in the selection process.

That led to a bruising intraparty squabble. Democrats in both states warned that the eventual Democratic nominee risked losing their states in November if they were punished. Some Florida Democrats took legal action to get their delegates seated, and neither state got preprimary campaign visits from candidates Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.

For Scott Maddox, former chairman of the Florida Democratic Party, it was a year of party infighting that didn't need to happen.

"When this first occurred . . . I said whatever the Republicans do with their delegations, we will do the same. The difference is we will have a food fight in the middle," said Maddox, who sits on the Democratic National Committee's Credentials Committee that will take up the matter next Sunday. "It seems our party cannot avoid having a free-for-all."

ASSOCIATED PRESS

House leaders to speak at Democratic convention
DENVER - Majority leader Steny Hoyer and Democratic Caucus chairman Rahm Emanuel are among the House leaders tapped to speak at the Democratic National Convention.

The Democratic National Convention Committee and Barack Obama's presidential campaign said yesterday that House majority whip James Clyburn of South Carolina and Representative Robert Wexler of Florida will also speak at the convention.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will speak on the opening night of the convention at the Pepsi Center stadium in downtown Denver. Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois will also speak that night.

Other House members selected to speak Aug. 26: Emanuel of Illinois; Hoyer of Maryland; Nydia Velazquez of New York; Linda Sanchez of California; Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin; Eleanor Holmes Norton of Washington, D.C.; Mike Honda and Xavier Becerra, both of California; and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

ASSOCIATED PRESS