Candidates Stress Early Fundraising

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards greets supporters in Columbia, S.C. The former senator raised $7.4 million in the first quarter of 2003, but other candidates are expected to surpass that this quarter. (By Anne Mcquary -- Associated Press)

At a recent breakfast in Cambridge, Mass., Obama spoke to about two dozen young venture capitalists -- many of them political novices -- in an effort to tap new pools of money rather than engage in a zero-sum game with Clinton. His supporters say the strategy is working.

"I had thought, 'Boy, this is going to be quite an effort,' not knowing how to raise money or who to even turn to, and within a couple weeks' time we had more than quadrupled my expectations in terms of what we would raise," said Dan Nova, 45, a first-time presidential fundraiser who held the breakfast event at his house. Nova declined to give the exact figure brought in but described it as a "significant, multi-hundred-thousand-dollar amount" -- far in excess of the $50,000 he set out to raise.

Obama's rivals argue that his ability to hold multimillion-dollar events in New York and Los Angeles belie the campaign's claim that his is simply a grass-roots movement without major financial players. He has stolen away dozens of Clinton fundraisers; hired a veteran finance director, Julianna Smoot; and signed up a talented team of Web designers at the company Blue State Digital to help power his online fundraising effort. In the last election cycle, Blue State Digital helped former Vermont governor Howard Dean bring in a flood of low-dollar online donations that catapulted him into the spotlight.

Clinton, who can roll over more than $11 million from her Senate race last year, has a huge, traditional network in place -- headed by the veteran Clinton finance guru, Terence R. McAuliffe -- and her husband, perhaps the party's biggest fundraising draw. On Sunday, Bill Clinton hosted a 1,000-person gala at the Sheraton in New York; he also attended last night's event (minimum donation: $1,000) at the Marriott Wardman Park. In between, the former president was scheduled to attend a fundraising reception at the home of Sheila and Jay Kaplowitz in Philadelphia.

"Just as she is exceeding expectations everywhere she is going politically, we'd all like to exceed expectations when it comes to fundraising," said Steve Grossman, a major Clinton fundraiser in Boston. He said Hillary Clinton, like Obama, is bringing in new donors every day.

After an intimate "friend-raising" dinner at the home of Elaine and Gerry Schuster in Boston in February, Clinton supporters are preparing for a much larger gathering on March 30 -- just under the wire for first-quarter filing. The campaign has asked donors to send checks in advance so they can be applied to the March 31 tally.

Both Clinton and Obama are expected to hold fundraisers in Las Vegas later this week.

In a significant change, strategists on both sides of the aisle agree, Democratic contenders could wind up with more money than their Republican counterparts.

Still, GOP benchmarks exist. The campaigns of former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney have said publicly that they hope to collect $75 million to $100 million by the end of the year.

Early on, Romney impressed insiders by collecting more than $6 million in a single call-athon day in Boston, but one strategist said he has not heard much since from the former governor. "Either he's gotten all the money he's going to get or they've got so much money they don't need any more," the strategist said. Romney is staying active on the fundraising circuit, with 20 events scheduled this month.

Kevin Madden, a spokesman for Romney, refused to offer a concrete goal for the quarter, adding: "Everybody recognizes that fundraising totals should be reflective of the national polls. In the national polls, we are in third place."

Giuliani may have the most to gain -- or lose -- with his first-quarter showing, and he and his inner circle of fundraisers are acting like it. One Republican operative said that Paul Singer, a pioneer in hedge-fund investing and a Giuliani backer, is personally making calls to potential donors in New York and Washington, putting his own capital on the line to round up cash.

Allies of McCain say he got a late start on raising money because he did not make a definitive decision on his candidacy until this month. McCain had been unofficially running for months, if not years, before that announcement. His first major event was on March 2 in Phoenix, and was the first in a series of "Exchange of Ideas" fundraisers in which the crowd is allowed to question the candidate. A week later, a second "Exchange" fundraiser was staged in New York, where former secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger spoke.

Bush, an incumbent running without significant primary opposition, raised $36 million in the first six months of 2003. His campaign began fundraising in earnest only in early March.