« Previous Entry | Main | Next Entry »

Posted: July 5, 2007 5:19 PM
Obama Rakes in Record-breaking $32.5 Million
Email This

Big news came early this week for Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., after his campaign announced it collected $32.5 million in the second quarter of fund raising, more than any other presidential candidate.

In a press release, the campaign said $31 million of the donations could be used during the primary. In the three-month quarter, 154,000 people donated to Obama’s campaign, bringing the senator’s total number of donors to 258,000. In an e-mail, Obama directed supporters to a new overview of what the campaign has accomplished in the past three months. Among other things, the chart notes that the campaign has raised $10.3 million in online donations alone.

Obama’s totals set a record for money raised by a Democratic presidential candidate in a single quarter during a non-election year. President Bush holds the record for most money raised by any candidate, collecting $35.1 million between April and June of 2003.

Meanwhile on the campaign trail, Obama was in New Hampshire and Iowa for a number of events. While in New Hampshire on Monday, Obama released a statement on President Bush’s decision to commute the sentence of former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby. Obama said the decision “cements the legacy of an administration characterized by a politics of cynicism and division, one that has consistently placed itself and its ideology above the law.”

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the senator was one of several presidential candidates stumping in Iowa. He was joined by his family on Wednesday for various Fourth of July celebrations, including attending an Iowa Cubs minor league baseball game.

During the day, he gave an interview to the Associated Press’s Mike Glover in which he took a swipe at former President Clinton, who also was in Iowa campaigning with his wife Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., Obama’s top rival for the Democratic nomination.

Obama said, “What we’re more interested in is in looking forward, not looking backward. I think the American people feel the same way. They are looking for a way to break out of the harsh partisanship and the old arguments and solve problems.”

In the past week, Obama also has commented on several hot-button issues. On the failed immigration legislation in the Senate, Obama said, “this bill was by no means perfect, but even though there were provisions that some of us disagreed with, we should have worked to find common ground.” And on the Supreme Court’s ruling on two school de-segregation programs, saying the schools could not consider race in admissions, the senator released a lengthy statement blasting the decision, saying. “this wrong-headed ruling underscores the critical importance of a president’s appointments to the Supreme Court and a Justice Department’s commitment to civil rights enforcement. It is the but the latest in a string of decisions by this conservative bloc of justices that turn back the clock on decades of advancement and progress in the struggle for equality.”

Looking ahead, Obama goes to Philadelphia on Thursday for the National Education Association Representative Assembly and then travels to New Orleans in the afternoon for the Essence Music Festival. The senator has no public events scheduled over the weekend, but plans to be in Birmingham, Ala. on Monday for a rally.