OBAMA RAISES $66 MILLION, 500,000 NEW DONORS

Obama Raised a Record $66 Million in August
By Jeff Zeleny

Senator Barack Obama raised $66 million during August, aides said Sunday, recording the most prolific fund-raising month of his presidential candidacy.

David Plouffe, the Obama campaign manager, said a half-million new donors signed up to give money to Mr. Obama. He said the campaign’s bank account had $77 million at the end of last month.

“The 500,000 new donors to the Obama campaign demonstrate just how strongly the American people are looking to kick the special interests out and change Washington,” Mr. Plouffe said in a statement, adding that more than 2.5 million people have now made contributions to the campaign in the last 19 months.

While the figure is a considerable sum of money, it is a baseline for what Mr. Obama has to raise every month to meet his campaign’s goals. He is not taking public financing – an $84 million cash infusion from the United States Treasury – so his fund-raising burden is considerably higher than his Republican rivals.

For Mr. Obama, the $66 million tally in August came as he formally accepted the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in a speech viewed on television by about 40 million people. Fund-raising also picked up in the final few days of the month as Senator John McCain announced his running-mate, Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, aides said, but most of those contributions came in September.

Bill Burton, a spokesman for Mr. Obama, said Sunday that the campaign would not file its report to the Federal Election Commission until Sept. 20, so a more precise analysis of how the money was raised will not be possible until then.


His previous monthly fund-raising record of $55 million came in February.

This week, the fund-raising continues in earnest for the Obama campaign, with large and small events across the country. Tonight, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton will appear at a $1,000-per-plate dessert reception at a home in Wilmette, Ill., to benefit Mr. Obama.

On Tuesday, Mr. Obama travels to Los Angeles for back-to-back money-raising galas, followed by similar events at the end of the week in Florida.