Clinton Camp Reports Record Haul

Apr 02, 05:00 AM

Current Headlines: By Jill Lawrence

WASHINGTON -- New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton shattered the record for presidential campaign fundraising in the first quarter of the year before an election with receipts of $36 million, her campaign said Sunday.

Clinton's total includes $10 million transferred from her 2006 Senate campaign committee and some non-primary money donated for a general-election campaign if she becomes the Democratic nominee. Spokesman Howard Wolfson said that "considerably more" of the $26million raised this year is for the primaries, but the breakdown isn't tabulated yet.

Campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe, a former national party chairman, said Clinton's fundraising reflected "enormous enthusiasm" for her, but he expects Illinois Sen. Barack Obama will have raised a similar amount.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton said the campaign has received "tremendous grass-roots support" but is not ready to release numbers. In one area, Obama had an edge. Clinton said she had 50,000 donors. Obama was closing in Sunday evening on 84,000, according to his website.

John Edwards, who ran in 2004, raised more than $14 million -- twice his first-quarter total in 2003 -- from more than 37,000 donors. Campaign officials said about $1million was for the general election. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson raised more than $6 million, spokesman Pahl Shipley said. Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said on Fox News Sunday that he had raised about $3million.

Before now, the highest off-year, first-quarter total was $13.5 million reported in 1995 by Republican Texas Sen. Phil Gramm.

Figures for other 2008 candidates were not available Sunday. All first-quarter fundraising reports are due April 15 at the Federal Election Commission.

Anthony Corrado, a campaign-finance expert at Colby College in Maine, said Clinton's total is similar to what President Bush raised in the second quarter of 2003, when he was running for re-election unopposed. "They want to create an impression of strength," he said. (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.