Obama raises $52m in June, but not from Hillary supporters

By Jonas Oliver • July 25, 2008 - 10:36

Barack Obama raised $50m in June

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Barack Obama had a stellar fundraising month in June bringing in an astounding $52 million ( £26m).

However, for as impressive as that total may seem on the surface, it conceals the fact that Hillary Clinton’s largest donors have continued to withhold their financial support from the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Of Obama’s $52 million June take, Clinton's 311 big money 'Hillraisers' contributed only $19,250 to Obama's campaign .

According to Seth Colter Wells from The Huffington Post, only about eight of the well-heeled, well-organised Hillraisers donated to the Illinois Senator, though others may have tried to round up other donors.

Meanwhile, a separate, broader Washington Post survey of overall Obama donors found only around 2,200 Clinton donors contributed to Obama in June for a total of $1.8 million.

(This number does not take into account donations less than $200 which the Federal Elections Commission does not track).

That sum represented a measly 3.5 percent of Obama’s monthly total and less than a tenth of what Clinton herself raised in April.

Most interestingly, only about half of the $1.8 million came from 355 Clinton donors contributing more than $2,000 apiece, which contradicts the notion that Obama is attracting significant support from the millions of small-sum donors from Clinton's base.

This is particularly bad news for Obama given his efforts to inspire party unity as evidenced by the joint fundraising events he’s held with Senator Clinton since clinching the nomination.

However, on the upside for Obama, raising over fifty million dollars without the help of Clinton supporters is not only an impressive accomplishment, but may also bode well for how he will perform in the general election in November in spite of the fact that many of Clinton supporters continue to organise against his campaign.

Even though Senator Hillary Clinton conceded the Democratic Presidential nomination to Obama in early June and urged all of her supporters to vote for him, some of her most stalwart campaigners have resisted preferring to continue to work to get Clinton’s name into nomination or to work on behalf of John McCain.

Will Bower, the 36-year-old full-time head of the anti-Obama, pro-Clinton PUMA PAC, estimates that there are 250 PUMA-related Web sites and 2.5 million PUMAs online.

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