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Posted: February 7, 2008 3:00 PM
Super Tuesday Momentum Amasses Millions for Clinton, Obama
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Following split wins for both Democratic candidates across the country Tuesday, Sen. Hillary Clinton’s campaign reported $4 million in fundraising and Sen. Barack Obama hauled in $3 million in the first 24 hours after Super Tuesday polls closed. Obama’s campaign announced Thursday they had taken in a total $7.2 million since Tuesday, but Clinton’s reports for the same time period haven’t been released yet.

Obama’s fundraising success follows a $32 million haul in

January and victories in more states than Clinton on Tuesday.

The Clinton campaign recently acknowledged funding trouble in the end of last month. Clinton said Wednesday she loaned her own campaign $5 million in late January.

“Obama was outraising and outspending her heading into Feb. 5 Super Tuesday contests,” the Associated Press reported. “Some senior staffers on her campaign also are voluntarily forgoing paychecks as the campaign heads into the next round of contests.”

Clinton’s donations were drawn from online contributors. Her campaign’s Internet Director Peter Daou thanked the New York senator’s grassroots support for the recent success.

“In the past 48 hours, more than 35,000 donors have contributed to the campaign, helping Hillary keep pace with the combined fundraising power of Sen. Obama’s campaign, MoveOn, and Sen. Kerry’s 3 million person email list — to which Sen. Obama now has access,” Daou said in a news release.

Even with Clinton’s recent momentum, there is still a large disparity in financial resources between the two.

“Obama has a significant fundraising advantage, having brought in more than twice her donations in January — $32 million to $13.5 million,” the Associated Press reported.

Obama has purchased ads in large media markets across the country including Washington, D.C., which holds its primary contest next Tuesday alongside neighboring Maryland and Virginia. He stopped Thursday in Louisiana before Saturday’s contest there and he plans to campaign in Hawaii and Wisconsin next week.

“Clinton, with less money to spend and less confident of her prospects in the February contests, will instead concentrate on Ohio and Texas, large states with primaries March 4 and where polling shows her with a significant lead,” the AP reported. “She even is looking ahead to Pennsylvania’s primary April 22, believing a large elderly population there will favor the former first lady.”

In what was perhaps an effort to encourage more national coverage, Clinton challenged her opponent to televised debates once a week until the end of the primaries. Obama declined.

“I don’t think anybody is clamoring for more debates,” Obama said in a news conference, according to the Seattle Times.

Obama campaign manager David Plouffe called Clinton’s requests for more debates “a tactic out of second-tier congressional campaign playbooks,” the AP said.

“There’s going to be more debates, but our schedule is not going to be dictated by the Clinton campaign,” Plouffe said.