Obama's fund-raising eclipses McCain's

Source: Agencies  |   2008-7-18  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

UNITED States Democrat Barack Obama's campaign said yesterday it raked in US$52 million last month as the presidential candidate's prodigious fund-raising climbed back to near his record monthly total and more than double the June take for Republican rival John McCain, who had his best month of the year.

Campaign financing, vital to candidates' ability to spread their message and always heavily scrutinized, has become even more of an issue in this presidential contest. Obama became the first candidate to decide against taking public financing, the US$84 million in federal money available for each candidate after he is formally nominated at his party convention. The Democrats gather in Denver, Colorado late next month; the Republicans will assemble in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in early September.

No other candidate has opted not to use public financing since it became available in 1974 after the Watergate scandal that brought down Republican former President Richard Nixon.

While he continues to easily outdistance McCain - who raised US$22 million in June - Obama and the Democratic National Committee still lagged more than US$20 million behind the combined total available to McCain.