Thaindian News

Washington, Oct.20 (ANI): Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has added over 150 million dollars in September to his campaign kitty. His campaign released this figure on Sunday, a day before it must file a detailed report of its monthly finances with the Federal Election Commission. According to a FOX News report, Obama’’s money is fueling a vast campaign operation in an expanding field of competitive states. It also has underwritten a wave of both national and targeted video advertising unseen before in a presidential contest. Campaign manager David Plouffe, in an e-mail to supporters Sunday morning, said the campaign had added 632,000 new donors in September, for a total of 3.1 million contributors to the campaign. He said the average donation was 86 dollars. The Democratic National Committee, moments later, announced that it raised 49.9 million dollars and had 27.5 million dollars in the bank at the start of October. The party has been raising money through joint fundraising events with Obama and can use the money to assist his candidacy. Obama’’s numbers are possible because he opted out of the public financing system for the fall campaign. McCain, the Republican nominee, chose to participate in the system, which limits him to 84 million dollars for the September-October stretch before the election. Obama’’s monthly figure pushed his total fundraising to 605 million dollars. No presidential candidate has ever run such an expensive campaign. His campaign raised 65 million dollars in August, his previous best. Earlier, Obama had initially promised to accept public financing if McCain did, but changed his mind after setting primary fundraising records. His extraordinary fundraising is bound to set a new standard in politics that could doom the taxpayer-paid system. With his money, and a favorable political wind at his back, Obama has secured his foothold in states that have voted for Democratic presidential candidates in the past. But he has also been able to expand the contest to reliably Republican states, forcing McCain and the Republican Party to spend their money defensively. (ANI)