I Made a Commitment to Barack Obama

…and so should you. I just signed up to be part of his Grassroots Finance Committee, pledging to raise at least $1,000 for Obama’s campaign this fall. I signed up after receiving this note in the mail from his campaign:

Join the Grassroots Finance Committee (GFC), a core group of dedicated supporters who are setting a personal goal to raise $1,000 each in small-dollar donations.

Barack is relying on ordinary people giving only what they can afford to support this movement. Join the GFC and reach out to your network of friends, family, and neighbors and encourage them to make a donation and own a piece of this campaign.

I immediately knew it was something I had to do. But I decided to make the job a tiniest bit tougher myself, and set another condition on how I raise this money, and I hope you join me in this pledge:

July fundraising: Obama nearly doubles McCain, DNC outraises RNC

The fundraising figures for the Obama campaign and the DNC are in today, and there is a lot of good news to go around.   Obama raised more than $51 million, while the DNC raised $27.7 million

From the AP

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama raised more than $51 million in July and the Democratic National Committee reported $27.7 million in donations last month, putting Obama in a strong position for the fall campaign.

Obama’s $51 million, although down a hair from last month when he raised $52 million, still almost doubles the $27 million McCain raised in July (his best ever).  Even though Obama’s figures are slightly down from last month, they are encouraging.  Last month Obama got a significant fundraising bounce from wrapping up the Democratic nomination, and this month he was overseas for a significant portion of the trip, which prevented him from fundraising.  August looks to be a really robust fundraising month for Senator Obama. Both Senator Obama’s birthday earlier this month and the Democratic Convention at the end of the month will provide Senator Obama with a boost in fundraising.  I’m willing to go out on a limb and predict that Senator Obama’s August fundraising figures will break his monthly record of $55 million (February 2008).

The DNC’s fundraising figures are even better news for the Democrats than Obama’s fundraising figures.  Up until now, the DNC has sort of been the black sheep of the Democratic fundraising committees this cycle.  While the Obama campaign, the DSCC, and the DCCC have all significantly outraised their Republican counterparts this election, the DNC has been getting badly beaten by the RNC this cycle.  This looks like it is about to change as the DNC outraised the RNC last month for the first time since October 2004.  Obama’s big donors came through for the party as the DNC raised $27.7 million compared with the RNC’s $26 million.

McCain fundraising figures for July Released

From the AP

John McCain raised $27 million in July, his largest one-month fundraising haul since clinching the Republican presidential nomination, while the Republican National Committee brought in nearly $26 million.

The GOP nominee-in-waiting had $21 million available to spend as August began, while the national party began the month with $75 million to compete with the Democrats.

This would make July McCain’s best fundraising month, with a $5 million haul better than his previous record, which was $22 million in July.  RNC fundraising is stagnant from last month, in which they also rose $26 million.  Barack Obama’s July numbers are not in yet, but they will almost certainly be significantly better than McCain’s numbers.  For comparision, Senator Obama raised $52 million to his preisdential bid in June, compared to Senator McCain’s $22 million.

On the Cash on Hand front, John McCain must spend all of his remaining Cash on Hand by the end of the month, since he is taking public financing for the general election.  Look for him to outspend Senator Obama during the month of August.  The RNC is flush with cash at $76 million COH.  Conventional wisdom is that most of this money will go towards John McCain’s presidential bid, however with the extremely poor fundraising numbers the NRSC and the NRCC have been putting up this election cycle, the RNC will likely have to spread the wealth to Senate and Congressional races as well.

Senator Obama’s fundraising numbers must be released by August 20th.

Obama outraises McCain 6:1 among active overseas military

The Center for Responsive politics has come out with a new study on donations from military personnel to presidential candidates, and the results are actively embarrassing for Senator John McCain.  Despite McCain’s own veteran status and a media narrative that paints him as a foreign policy expert (despite all evidence to the contrary), the troops which have the most on the line have The Center for Responsive politics has come out with a new study on donations from military personnel to presidential candidates, and the results are actively embarrassing for Senator John McCain.  Despite McCain’s own veteran status and a media narrative that paints him as a foreign policy expert (despite all evidence to the contrary), the troops which have the most on the line have overwhelmingly favored Senator Obama with their donations.

According to an analysis of campaign contributions by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Democrat Barack Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed overseas at the time of their contributions than has Republican John McCain, and the fiercely anti-war Ron Paul, though he suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination months ago, has received more than four times McCain’s haul.

What’s arguably even more embarrassing for Senator McCain than Barack Obama’s fundraising prowess is that Ron Paul out raised him by more than a 4:1 margin from active overseas military.  Ron Paul, despite being borderline certifiable with some of his policy ideas, was the only Republican candidate who was anti-war in the primary.  Between the contributions that Ron Paul and Barack Obama have received, it’s clear that active duty military that are deployed overseas are sending a clear message that they are ready to end America’s military engagement in Iraq.

McCain campaign to return $50,000 in donations solicited through foreign national

The McCain campaign today has agreed to return $50,000 in donations collected for him from a Jordanian foreign national, Mustafa Abu Naba’a. The McCain fundraising questions started out two days ago, when the Washington Post noticed that a large number of contributions being raised for McCain by Harry Sargeant, a Florida defense contractor, were coming from unlikely places such as an auto mechanic and unregistered voters. Yesterday, the NYT reported that a number of those contributions that Sargeant raised were not raised directly from him, but raised from his Jordanian business partner Mustafa Abu Naba’a. These contributions were raised again from people who were very unlikely sources of donations, including several people who did not intending on supporting McCain for president.

If anyone is interested in reading up on the questions that have been raised about John McCain’s fundraising, I wrote about the issues both at Daily Kos and Strategy 08 in 2 articles: McCain raises questionable contributions from Mechanic, unregistered voters and NYT Raises More Questions About McCain’s Fundraising. They’re both worth a read if you’re interested in reading more about McCain’s questionable fundraising.

Today, the McCain campaign must finally be feeling the heat, because the AP reports that the campaign has agreed to return $50,000 in donations that have been raised by Mustafa Abu Naba’a.

McCain Camp Reviewing Bundler’s Donations

The plot thickens:

John McCain’s campaign says it will review donations brought in by a prominent Florida businessman following disclosures that his business partner, a foreign national, also may have engaged in fundraising.

A McCain spokesman says the campaign is looking into hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions to make sure that they are appropriate.

The campaign is sending a letter spelling out legal requirements to all donors who sent their contributions through Harry Sargeant III, the finance chairman of the Florida Republican Party.

Talkingpoints memo has been all over this story, and the Washington Post and New York Times have done good work exposing what is going on.

So, what happens next? It seems to me that McCain realizes this is becoming a major headache. His shady actions in fund raising have been well documented, including securing a loan by pledging to go into public financing for the primaries, and then reversing course. With more and more of these questionable characters being exposed to the light of day, it seems to me only a matter of time before this blows up into a full on scandal. Ben Smith over at Politico notes that Chuck Todd is betting that McCain returns the money by the end of the week. Smart move, but it really doesn’t address the issue of McCain using any and every questionable source to fill up his campaign account. Now, the question is if the media will hold him to account. We shall see.

Update: McCain is returning 50K in donations.

NYT raises more questions about McCain’s fundraising

The McCain story of McCain’s questionable fundraising continues to get more interesting. For those of you not familiar with the questions raised so far, a fundraiser named Harry Sargeant has been bringing in maxed out donations to McCain from questionable sources, including an auto mechanic and other unregistered voters. Senator McCain also received a donation of over $60,000 (between his campaign and the RNC) from a Hess office manager and an Amtrak foreman living in Flushing, Queens who still drive a 1993 sedan. If you’d like to read up on the story you can do so here.

The NYT has a piece out today that raises more questions about the contributions that McCain has raised from Harry Sargeant, particularly the contributions raised from one family, the Abdullahs.

From the NYT:.

Campaign finance records show Mr. McCain collected a little more than $50,000 in March from members of a single extended family, the Abdullahs, in California and several of their friends.

Amid a sea of contributions to the McCain campaign, the Abdullahs stand out. The checks come not from the usual exclusive coastal addresses, but from relatively hardscrabble inland towns like Downey and Colton. The donations are also startling because of their size: several donors initially wrote checks of $9,200, exceeding the $2,300 limit for an individual gift.

McCain bundler raises questionable contributions from mechanic, unregistered voters

This list of McCain’s questionable donors continues to rise. On Monday, Dansac highlighted a TPM piece that revealed that Alice Rocchio, a Hess office manager, and Pasquale Rocchio, an Amtrak train foreman, together donated $57,000 to the RNC.

Today, the Washington Post has a pretty explosive story about some more unlikely contributions that were sent McCain’s way.

The bundle of $2,300 and $4,600 checks that poured into Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign on March 12 came from an unlikely group of California donors: a mechanic from D&D Auto Repair in Whittier, the manager of Rite Aid Pharmacy No. 5727, the 30-something owners of the Twilight Hookah Lounge in Fullerton.

So how did these donors with everyday jobs manage to be able to fork over contributions of $2300-$4600, in a time when the economy is in a recession, and people are trying to find ways to save as much as they can? The situation gets more interesting when you look at who raised the money for Senator McCain:

Pardon the Interruption

Today is the last day that any contributions can be counted towards the July fundraising numbers.  You can donate here.

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

This is Clearly a Big Problem for Obama

I look forward to listening to the media explain how, given the current environment, he should have raised even more than this enormous amount.

So much for that “underwhelming” $30 million Obama allegedly raised in June:

OBAMA RAISES $52 MILLION IN JUNE

Suckers.