Bush raises $200m, far beyond Kerry
WASHINGTON -- President Bush's campaign has hit the $200 million mark in fund-raising, doubling his 2000 record in less than a year, a tabulation of donations through April posted on the campaign's website shows. The Republican incumbent has raised almost twice as much as John F. Kerry, the presumptive Democratic challenger.
The figure would have been virtually unthinkable as recently as four years ago, when Bush stunned political observers by taking in just over $100 million. Bush did so then with the help of a network of more than 200 volunteer campaign fund-raisers nicknamed Pioneers, who each collected at least $100,000 for him.
Since then, Bush's fund-raising team has more than doubled, and many of his supporters have raised more than $200,000 apiece. They have done so with help from the nation's campaign finance law, which doubled the maximum a person could donate to a political campaign, to $2,000.
Bush spokesman Terry Holt said the campaign also has received hundreds of thousands of smaller contributions.
"We've raised money in every county in the United States of America, and we feel we have the kind of broad grass-roots base to be competitive," Holt said yesterday.
The total surpasses the Bush campaign's stated goals. Although many Bush supporters were confident of reaching or exceeding the $200 million mark, the campaign had set a goal of $150 million to $170 million when the president began raising money for his reelection effort last May.
Kerry is setting his own records. The Massachusetts senator raised at least $25 million in April, pushing his total since January 2003 to a party record $110 million.
His campaign shrugged off Bush's record. "So he's raised $200 million, and all he's got himself is in a dead heat," Kerry spokesman Michael Meehan said.
Bush and Kerry can raise so much in part because both skipped public financing and the accompanying $45 million spending limit until their party nominating conventions in the summer.
Both campaigns have spent tens of millions. In March alone, the last spending figures available, Bush burned up a presidential record $50 million as he launched a first wave of television ads.
The Bush campaign held its last scheduled fund-raisers last month. The campaign in April raised about $15 million.
This week, the Kerry campaign launched an effort to raise at least $10 million over the Internet this month. Kerry's latest Internet push yielded more than $2.5 million by yesterday.
