Big fund-raisers shifting support to Obama camp

WASHINGTON -- As Senator Hillary Clinton has stepped up her presidential campaign, a number of fund-raisers long associated with her and her husband have shifted their loyalties to Senator Barack Obama.

Among the biggest fund-raisers for Obama's campaign are as many as a half dozen former guests of the Clinton White House. At least two are close enough to the Clintons to have slept in the Lincoln bedroom.

At minimum, a dozen were major fund-raisers for President Clinton. At least four worked in the administration and one, James Rubin, is the son of a former Clinton Treasury secretary. About two dozen of the top Obama fund-raisers have contributed to Hillary Clinton's Senate campaigns or political action committee, some as recently as a few months ago.

A list of about 130 of Obama's top fund-raisers, released by the campaign yesterday, showed the extent to which the Democratic Party establishment, once aligned with Hillary Clinton, has drifted into her rival's camp, lending the early stages of the Democratic primary campaign the feeling of a family feud.

Those donations helped propel Obama above Clinton in fund- raising for the Democratic primary. Clinton, once the presumed heir to the party structure her husband built, trailed Obama by $5.7 million in primary fund-raising, according to reports filed yesterday with the Federal Election Commission.

John Edwards, who reported raising $13 million for the primary, was third in fund-raising among leading Democrats, according to the Associated Press.

Edwards reported $10.7 million in the bank for his presidential campaign at the end of the first three months of the year, a solid foundation as he tries to stay within reach of his rivals in the party.

Clinton's campaign relied on a narrow band of rich and devoted supporters to beat Obama in a wider measure of total fund-raising: contributions for both the primary and the general election.

In campaign finance reports filed with the Federal Election Commission before yesterday's deadline, Obama reported that he raised $24.8 million for the primary campaign during the first quarter, compared with $19.1 million for Clinton, but she has more cash on hand going into April.

With $10 million left from her Senate race, Clinton began the month with a primary war chest of about $23 million and $6.9 million for the general election. Obama's campaign entered April with about $18.2 million in the bank for the primary and another $1 million for the general election.

The campaign filings reflect fund-raising and spending for the first three months of 2007, and are seen as a crucial indicator of the strength of the various candidates.

A review of Clinton's general election fund-raising also indicates the depth of her dependence on a relatively narrow base of donors. A review of her filing indicates that about 5,100 of her supporters contributed three-quarters of her total $26 million take for the quarter.