I keep hearing rumors that Dems aren’t really excited about Kerry’s campaign and that his support is driven primarily by anti-Bush animus. It’s hard to reconcile this, however, with Kerry’s stunning fundraising success.
Democratic candidate for President John Kerry today announced he has raised over $100 million in the three months since the Super Tuesday primaries on March 2nd. Kerry raised at least $26 million in May, bringing his total for the three months to over $100 million and reaching the campaign’s 2004 goal of $100 million nearly 2 months early.
Shattering all grassroots fundraising records, 75 percent of the funds Kerry has raised since Super Tuesday have been from grassroots fundraising — online $44 million, direct mail and phones $31 million. The average grassroots contribution at johnkerry.com was $108, the average via direct mail and phones was about $70.
And while most people (including me) assumed it’d be impossible for Kerry to come close to Bush’s historic money machine, our guy is looking awfully good by comparison.
For the third straight month, Kerry out raised Bush. May’s Kerry Campaign total was more than double the Bush-Cheney campaign’s May total of $13 million. Kerry beat Bush’s total by $15 million in April ($31 million to $16 million) and by over $17 million in March, when the Kerry campaign raised $43.4 million. The Kerry Campaign has receipts for well over $140 million for the presidential primary cycle, breaking Bush’s 2000 record for a non-incumbent, according to the FEC report.
I can’t tell which is more fascinating: Kerry’s success in building record-breaking support or Bush’s failure to keep up.
In fact, looking at these numbers, one starts to wonder if it’s Bush who’s having trouble generating excitement from his base. Kerry didn’t just out-raise the incumbent fundraiser-in-chief by a little — he doubled Bush’s totals in April and May.
If Kerry weren’t popular among Dems, this just couldn’t happen. Bush-hating can account for some of Kerry’s contributions, but not this much.
The Post’s Tom Edsall helps put it in perspective.
Since locking up the Democratic nomination on March 2, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) has raised more than $100 million, or over $1 million a day — a pace breaking all presidential campaign records, including those set by President Bush.
The Kerry campaign announced the figures yesterday, before filing with the Federal Election Commission later this week. The disclosure shows that Kerry led Bush in fundraising from March through May almost 2 to 1: $100.4 million to Bush’s $55.2 million. In May alone, Kerry raised $26 million compared with $13.2 million by Bush, according to calculations by CNN that Bush officials described as accurate.
I should note that Kerry has not raised as much as Bush overall — but Bush had an enormous head start. While Kerry had to endure a costly primary season, Bush was raking in the dough. As a result, Bush has raised a total of over $210 million since the beginning of the campaign season, well more than Kerry’s $145 million.
But that’s why cash-on-hand numbers will be the ones to watch. It’s more important to see how much money a candidate has as opposed to how much he’s raised.
Bush, mirroring his governmental policies, likes to spend recklessly.
Campaign spending reports filed [in late May] with the Federal Election Commission showed that Bush spent $21 million on ads last month. He raised a record $200 million by April’s end and began May with almost $72 million in the bank.
If he began with $200 million and had about $72 million left, it obviously means Bush had spent $128 million by May 1. Presidential candidates, historically, haven’t raised that much total in the entire campaign.
Every time Kerry releases his numbers, there has to be a sense of panic at BC04 headquarters. No one, least of all Bush’s aides, expected Kerry to be this strong.