February 07, 2007
Obama To Opt Out Of Public Financing For Primary And General
Sources close to Sen. Barack Obama's campaign tell the Hotline that the Illinois senator has decided to opt out of the public financing system for both the nomination fight and the general election.
Obama joins Sen. Hillary Clinton, Ex-Sen. John Edwards, Sen. John McCain and Ex-MA Gov. Mitt Romney in deciding to forgo the federal matching funds.
Also today: In the wake of a Wall Street Journal article suggesting Clinton will raise in excess of $30 million this quarter, Clinton's campaign plans to float a much lower figure -- $15 million. That's hard to square with the public ebullience of some of her chief fundraisers.
The first quarter of fundraising matters more for Clinton than for Obama in this way: a lower-than-expected first quarter will partially derail the inevitability train that's carrying her to Denver. We’d ask: “Where did the vaunted fundraising machine go?” “Do Democratic donors not expect her to win?”
By comparison, Obama is just getting started. He'll raise a bunch this quarter -- though John Edwards could raise more -- but he'll need to sustain his pace in the second quarter in order to avoid questions about his financial viability. On the other hand, perhaps we're falling for spin -- and perhaps Obama will outraise 'em all. But we don't think so, at the moment.
One final money point to remember: Raising early money costs a lot of money, too, and the rate of return, at first, isn't that great. Obama doesn't have a strong donor base, although his campaign is building one rapidly, and the grassroots swell of support, if it exists, may take a few months to get rolling. [MARC AMBINDER]
Posted at 12:41 PM
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