WASHINGTON — The fundraising machine that Sen. Barack Obama is relying on to overwhelm Republican Sen. John McCain this fall has shown signs of wear in recent weeks, as Internet contributions have slowed and efforts to recruit top donors to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton have been beset by lingering tensions.
In a conference call Wednesday night, a top Obama adviser told members of the senator’s national finance committee that “there’s a huge amount of money we need to raise, and we have to be aware of that,” according to one person on the call, who said the campaign, combined with the Democratic National Committee, hopes to have raised $450 million by Election Day.
Several of Obama’s top fundraisers said Thursday that they don’t believe trend lines showing three straight months of declining donations to the candidate are cause for concern. But they said that the campaign has recognized it will need to expand efforts to raise money from high-dollar donors — especially former Clinton supporters — in order to meet budget projections.
“It’s one of the reasons why the Clinton people are so important,” said Kirk Wagar, Obama’s Florida finance chairman. “Most of us have beaten our Rolodexes pretty badly.”
To that end, Obama maintained a frenetic schedule of fundraising events this week, courting top Clinton bundlers and soaking up millions of dollars for the DNC.
On Monday, Obama spent 90 minutes at an event at the Atlanta area home of Michael Coles, who had led fundraising efforts in Georgia for Clinton. The dinner for roughly 40 people was so oversubscribed that billionaire Ted Turner was on a waiting list until several longtime Obama supporters gave up their seats. The same day, Chicago hotel heiress and Obama backer Penny Pritzker held a gathering hosted by several of Clinton’s Florida finance chairs. For several hours on Tuesday, Obama was at the Washington estate of Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., before launching a series of major fundraisers in New York at which he and Clinton appeared jointly with supporters. Those events, all of which fetched in the neighborhood of $28,500 per person, concluded Thursday morning with a less costly “Women for Obama” event at which he shared the stage with Clinton.
Obama fundraisers have been asked to collect checks from at least five donors to help Clinton retire more than $10 million of her campaign debt.
That task, in particular, has created heartache among longtime Obama supporters who believe any effort to retire Clinton’s debt should take a back seat to Obama’s fall campaign.
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