Quest for Campaign Cash Never Ends

The race for the Democratic presidential nomination is starting to look like a Jerry Lewis telethon.

Almost every day this week, the campaigns for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have sent supporters emails making pleas for cash, on top of the already record amounts both have received.

The pleas, at least for Clinton, took on an almost plaintive quality Wednesday when she acknowledged to reporters that she had loaned her own campaign $5 million and had stopped paying some of her senior staff.

"We don't have time to catch our breath — the next races are just three days away," Clinton said in an email to supporters.

Less than 24 hours later, her supporters beat a request to raise $3 million in three days, as the campaign said it raised more than $4 million in just one. A good chunk of it came from 35,000 new online contributors, the campaign said.

Obama's response: another email blast. "The Clinton infusion of $5 million — and there are reports it could end up being as much as $20 million — will give them huge resources for the next set of primaries and caucuses ... We must match their $5 million right now," the campaign said in an email late Wednesday.

On Thursday, the campaign announced it raised $7.2 million since Super Tuesday's batch of contests.

The Obama campaign has been a fundraising dynamo. In January, Obama officials said they raised $32 million, about half what the Clinton campaign said it raised. If figures for the first week of February follow the same pattern, Obama might raise even more in February.

Only thing is certain. Neither campaign is going to stop asking for money.

by J. Jennings Moss