Obama's cash haul surpasses McCain's

By Brian C. Mooney, Globe Staff

Democrat Barack Obama's campaign said today it raised $52 million in June, the month in which he locked up his party's presidential nomination.

Obama, who will forgo public funding in the general election, outraised Republican rival John McCain by about $30 million last month, even though McCain had his best fund-raising month of the campaign.

Obama's haul represented a rebound from May, when he raised about $22 million -- barely more than McCain. And it was Obama's second biggest month, behind only the record $55 million he brought in during February.

Obama's campaign, combined with the Democratic National Committee, has about $92 million cash on hand, just less than the combined $93 million of the McCain campaign and the Republican National Committee, which hopes to raise about $120 million to augment McCain's campaign spending. The GOP nominee will be limited to spending the public grant of $84.1 million, about $10 million a week, between his formal nomination the first week of September and the Nov. 4 election.

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe, in an early-morning email to supporters, said there was "a huge cash advantage" on the Republican side and appealed to supporters to dig deeper to close the gap and specifically asked for donations of $25.

During June, Plouffe wrote, "hundreds of thousands" contributed, including many first-time donors. The average contribution was $68, he said.

The campaign said about $2 million of the June proceeds is available for the general election, bringing to about $12 million the amount of funds the Obama campaign has set aside for the campaign after his formal nomination on Aug. 28.

In becoming the first presidential candidate to reject public funding for the general election campaign since it took effect in 1970s post-Watergate reforms, Obama, who has now raised about $339 million, is banking on continued record-shattering fund-raising through the Nov. 4 election.

UPDATE: Plouffe's email notwithstanding, the DNC crowed about its fund-raising success in June. It's $22.4 million haul and $20.3 million in available cash at month's end is far more than the $4.7 million raised and $3.7 million cash on hand in May.

The DNC also noted that it raised $6 million more in June than it did in March 2004, the month when John F. Kerry clinched the nomination.

And the DNC announced today that it has inked a joint fund-raising agreement with the Obama campaign and 18 state Democratic parties: Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, North Carolina, North Dakota, New Hampshire, New Mexico,Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

The list includes several traditionally Republican states where Obama hopes to win and where Democrats hope to pick up congressional seats.

“This is going to help us build the party up and down the ticket in all of those states,” Brad Woodhouse, a DNC spokesman said in a statement.