Obama Taps Two Worlds To Fill 2008 War Chest

"One of the quickest sources of cash was off the table, and there was some early grumbling," said one campaign adviser, who was not authorized to talk to reporters and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The original goal for the first quarter, back in December, was cautiously set at $8 million to $10 million.

The Pritzker family name brought instant fundraising cachet to the presidential campaign as well as the support of many of Chicago's best rank-and-file fundraisers, such as Paula Crown of the Henry Crown family. The Crowns are worth an estimated $4.1 billion and hold stakes in the Chicago Bulls and the New York Yankees, Hilton Hotels, and Rockefeller Center.

Over the Christmas holidays and into early January, Obama made several personal appeals and lured big-name fundraisers in such donor-rich settings as Hollywood and Wall Street. Big-dollar events began coming together quickly.

Obama scored early headlines by snagging Hollywood record mogul David Geffen, one of the Democratic Party's biggest donors and fundraisers during the Clinton era, who publicly defected and hosted a $1 million fundraiser in Hollywood with Katzenberg and director Steven Spielberg, anchors of the Clintons' Hollywood fundraising dream team in the 1990s.

Black fundraisers also responded to Obama's call, tapping into new sources of Democratic cash in black communities. "You actually have someone now who looks like he can reach out to a wide and diverse group," said Lorenzo M. Bellamy, an African American from Annapolis who is raising money for Obama.

"He has a way of allowing you to feel as though you are a critical part of the operation," said Orlan Johnson, a Washington lawyer and law professor at Howard University who hosted a fundraiser at Union Station last week that raised more than $400,000.

The initial enthusiasm about Obama pushed his first-quarter goal up to $15 million early in the year, and by March it had shifted again to more than $20 million. Although his final numbers for the quarter exceeded expectations, Clinton still finished first in the fundraising race with $26 million, the bulk of which came from longtime party loyalists. Clinton's husband, renowned for his persuasive skills, has not yet become fully engaged.

Still, Obama has lured many establishment donors and fundraisers from the former president's team. Both of the Clinton Federal Communications Commission chairmen -- Reed Hundt and William E. Kennard -- have jumped to Obama, bringing instant credibility and lengthy Rolodexes in the wealthy telecommunications and Internet industries they once oversaw.

Boston philanthropist Alan Solomont and hedge fund executive Orin Kramer, two anchors of the Clinton money machine dating to 1992, also joined Obama, as did two prominent Clinton supporters' sons, James P. Rubin and Kirk Dornbush.

Rubin, a private equity investor, is the son of former Clinton Treasury secretary Robert E. Rubin, a key architect of Bill Clinton's Wall Street fundraising machine and now an adviser to Hillary Clinton.

Dornbush, an Atlanta businessman and the son of Clinton's ambassador to the Netherlands, K. Terry Dornbush, is anchoring Obama's fundraising in the South. Kirk Dornbush has raised money for Southern Democrats such as Edwards and former Virginia governor Mark R. Warner and planned to sit out the Democratic primaries after Warner dropped from the race.