February Presidential Fundraising Numbers Available

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The folks over at OpenSecrets.org have started posting their analysis of the February FEC filing of each presidential candidate.

Essentially, it looks like John McCain is taking it a bit easy. He still has to make sure that voters remember his name until November, but he doesn’t have to maintain the hot and heavy campaign pace that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have going — after all, McCain has the Republican nomination already in hand. In February, McCain raised $10,937,453 and managed to keep his spending down to $8,139,279. I’m betting the surplus is going to build up a decent war chest for this fall. Even if McCain agrees to public financing, that money will come in handy.

While Republican fund raisers took February easy, though, Democratic fund raisers were working hard. Clinton’s campaign drummed up $34,466,631 dollars and spent $30,478,110. As of the last day of February, Clinton’s debts were over $8 million, so that $4 million surplus isn’t quite as useful as one might hope. Obama, though, continues to have a major fund raising lead: he raised $20 million more than Clinton in February, bringing in $55,369,162. His campaign spent $41,476,232 over the course of a month and has well under $1 million in debt. Whether or not you’re an Obama supporter, it’s hard to deny the fact that he’s doing much better on the money front.