Republican National Committee Out Raises The Democratic National Committee by 5 Times

A couple of days ago, Barack Obama opted out of the public financing system for presidential general election campaigns and many speculated that his reasoning could be because of the massive amounts of contributions he has been receiving, he would be limiting himself to just $84.1 million, which is what each candidate would be given to run their general election campaign and with John McCain raising less that Obama, the advantage would be silly to give up. Another reason might be behind Obama's decision to become the first presidential candidate since 1976 to opt out of the public financing system. Reports are in today that the McCain, with help from the Republican National Committee (RNC) has raised 5 times the amount of money to use than Obama with the help of the Democratic National Committee, in the same timeframe. In fact, the RNC has 13 times the amount of funds in the bank than the DNC does. Not only that but Barack Obama, in May, has seen his lowest numbers in months, garnering only $22 million, while McCain has seen his highest month in May, with $21 million. With just 136 days left for general election campaigning the RNC, led by chairman Mike Duncan, has reported that it has $53.5 million in the bank and the DNC, led by Howard Dean reports $3.9 million in the bank.

Thanks to the continuing popularity and fundraising attraction of President Bush, the RNC continued to vastly out-raise the Democratic party, amassing $24.4 million just in May.

Of that, it raised $7.1 million in small donations of $200 or less, the so-called unitemized receipts. The RNC raised more in small increments than the DNC’s total take in May of $4.8 million.

Money does not equal votes but money does buy ads in key states that both candidates need in order to win enough states to equal the 270 electoral college votes any candidate must have to win the presidential contest. One explanation for the differences in each candidates money hauls and the party donations, could be that while many hard core conservatives are not gung-ho about John McCain, they do unite solidly behind the Republican party in general, hence the lower numbers over the months for John McCain's personal donations compared to the RNC's receiving 5 times the amount of the DNC in the same timeframe. With Barack Obama, his supporters are very enthusiastic and are donating directly to his campaign but the DNC, after having angered many Democratic supporters who feel they have disenfranchised them, is not collecting as well as Obama is personally or as well as the RNC is as a group. For political junkies, the next three months should be very interesting.