The Growing Business Of Politics
The Democrats are reaching new heights in fund raising:
Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have raised more than $100 million in 2007, their campaigns indicated Monday. For historically cash-poor Democrats, the news marks a stunning reversal of fortune.
At this point in the 2004 presidential campaign, the Democratic money leader was anti-war former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, a grassroots and online favorite. His take: $41 million in 2003–and that was considered earthshaking at the time.
That’s pretty amazing, though the Dems have a long way to go before they hit the Republican record:
The individual fund-raising record for the year before an election still belongs to Republican George W. Bush. As an incumbent president running unopposed, Bush raised $132 million by the end of 2004.
And then, of course, there’s the fact that money doesn’t mean everything in politics:
The eventual 2004 Democratic nominee, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, had raised only $19 million from individuals by the end of 2003. He kicked in another nearly $6 million in personal loans and transfers from his Senate committee to boost his year-end total to more than $25 million.
In primary politics, nothing is ever really for sure.
