WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton defied the usual slow flow of summer money, tapping 100,000 new donors and outpacing all other presidential candidates in the chase for campaign cash over the past three months.
The New York senator raised $27 million in the quarter – $22 million for the primaries and $5 million for the general election – while other candidates fell victim to the traditional third-quarter dip in fundraising.
For the first time, Clinton reported attracting more new donors in a quarter than her chief fundraising rival, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. And, for the first time, she raised more primary election money than he did.
Both candidates have now raised about $80 million each since the beginning of the year.
Obama still has the most donors at 352,000 and leads Clinton in primary money. He has raised nearly $75 million toward the nominating contests to her $62.6 million – a figure that does not include the $10 million she transferred from her 2006 Senate campaign.
In the rarefied fundraising space that Clinton and Obama occupy, the differences are fairly insignificant. But their money sets them apart from the rest of the Democratic field and supplies them with resources to run lengthy and expensive campaigns.
“These two candidates have exceeded all expectations,” said Stephanie Cutter, a Democratic strategist and the communications director for John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign. “It would take a significant shift in the field or a catastrophic world event to change the dynamics in this race.”
Republicans were equally impressed.
“Clinton and Obama are on track to raise in excess of $100 million this year alone – by any measure, a tremendous performance,” said Michael Toner, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission and a legal adviser to the campaign of Republican candidate Fred Thompson.
Obama reported raising about $20 million in the third quarter.
Former Sen. John Edwards, lumped in a cluster with Obama and Clinton in polls of voters in the first-caucus state of Iowa, raised a distant $7 million.
