Bush Campaign Total Nears $230M
President Bush's record fund raising approached $230 million as July began, leaving him with tens of millions in the bank and several weeks of private donations to come before he accepts a government check for his general election campaign in early September.
Mr. Bush spent roughly $160 million on his re-election effort through June, including about $12 million last month, a campaign finance report he filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission showed.
Mr. Bush, who stopped holding fund-raisers for himself last spring, took in about $13 million in contributions last month and started July with $64 million in the bank.
Democratic rival John Kerry's campaign said earlier this month that he had collected at least $34 million in June through events and other fund raising, boosting his party-record total to more than $180 million. Like Mr. Bush, Sen. Kerry was to detail his contributions and spending in a report to the FEC due at midnight Tuesday.
When both candidates accept $75 million apiece in public money for the fall campaign, as they are expected to after they are nominated at the party conventions, it will be the only money they can spend on the presidential race from that point on. But it doesn't mean they will be on their own financially.
The Democratic and Republican parties can each spend roughly $16 million in coordination with their presidential nominees, and can pour in unlimited amounts on spending that is independent of the campaigns.
For Democrats, the spending blitz starts after Kerry accepts the party's presidential nomination in Boston on July 29. It begins for Republicans after the convention in New York in early September.
The Republican National Committee has raised at least $217 million this election cycle and started July with $78 million left, while the Democratic National Committee has collected about $125 million and began the month with roughly $63 million on hand. Each plans to rake in millions more before Election Day.
With an eye on making their government checks stretch as far as possible, the Bush and Kerry campaigns have helped raise tens of millions for their parties over the past several weeks. Their running mates are also lending a hand.
Vice President Dick Cheney has raised more than $2 million this year for the RNC, including $250,000 in Pennsylvania last week. Kerry running mate John Edwards' schedule this week puts him at Democratic fund-raisers in New York City and his home state of North Carolina.
The fund-raising help the parties get from their presidential candidates is more important than ever this election, the first under a new campaign law that banned the national parties from accepting corporate, union and unlimited donations.
The national parties now must rely on "hard money" donations from individuals, capped at $25,000 per year. Both have started new fund-raising programs to try to take in record amounts of that type of donation.
Each of the RNC's new "super rangers" fund-raising group must raise at least $300,000 by mid-August. The DNC's "trustees" pledge to raise at least $250,000 each by November.
The parties can spend unlimited amounts in support of their nominees thanks to a Supreme Court ruling last year that struck down new restrictions. The court overturned a provision of a 2002 campaign finance law that would have forced the parties to choose between coordinated and independent expenditures in the presidential race.
As long as the ads are paid for with hard money, the parties can call for the election or defeat of their opponents. In the past, when the ads were paid for with corporate, union and unlimited donations, they couldn't urge viewers to vote for or against a presidential candidate.
Only the two national committees can coordinate spending with the Bush and Kerry campaigns. State parties, like the DNC and RNC, can spend unlimited amounts of hard money in support of the candidates as long as it is done independently of their campaigns.