Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will campaign together Friday, their first joint public appearance since their primary battle ended. They also plan to appear Thursday evening at a private meeting with Clinton's top fundraisers.
That's not surprising, because the campaign money that has been raised and spent has topped all previous records. Clinton has also managed to rack up an unprecedented amount of debt. Her campaign owes vendors more than $10 million, and she owes herself even more — more than $12 million as of May 31.
And while Clinton was running in the red, Obama was building an army of small donors: 1.6 million of them, far more than any other campaign in American politics. But this week, Obama is turning his attention to big money, the kind that comes in from bundlers who round up contributions for the campaign.
Now that he has turned down public funds for the general election campaign, Obama needs Clinton's bundlers. And at the same time, Clinton needs Obama's bundlers to help retire her debt. This week, those two intertwined interests get resolved.
Steve Grossman, who was a bundler for Clinton, is now raising money for Obama.
"They reached out to me," he said. "Sen. Obama called me. I spoke to some of the fundraising leadership of the campaign. They made me feel extremely welcome."
On Thursday, Grossman was to attend his third weekly meeting of a unity fundraising committee, and he planned to be in Washington for the evening meeting where Clinton was to introduce Obama to her bundlers.
"I think there will be a request for commitments of support and of help," he said. "I believe that most of the people coming are prepared to do that. It is an effort to secure significant commitments earlier rather than later, to help Sen. Obama realize his ambitious fundraising goals, both for the campaign and for the Democratic National Committee."
Obama has been wooing Clinton's voters and donors. On his Web site, under "Welcome Hillary supporters," is an excerpt from his June 3 victory speech, in which he said: "Our party and our country are better off because of her. And I am a better candidate for having had the honor to compete with Hillary Rodham Clinton."
On Tuesday, Obama gave Clinton the ultimate gift in politics: He asked his own finance committee — his biggest bundlers — to help pay off her $10 million debt.
He told them Clinton made history. Linda Douglass with the Obama campaign said he also had a more pragmatic message.
"She's going to be an extremely important part of our effort, and it is in the interests of the Democratic Party to do whatever we can to help settle her debt," she said.
Obama's pitch didn't thrill everyone on the conference call, but fundraiser Alan Solomont said Obama asked them to help him help her.
Solomont also noted that Clinton isn't seeking money to repay the $12 million that she personally lent to her campaign. If Clinton cannot repay the personal loans before the Democratic convention in August, the law says she can recoup only $250,000 later; she would have to write off the balance.
Another fundraiser, speaking anonymously about the business of political money, said, "Of course I'm going to do it. It's what you do in a campaign."
Left out of all this are Obama's small donors — the people he cited when he turned down public financing, saying their money was equally untainted by special interests.
Obama's monthly fundraising totals peaked in February. They've been steadily falling since then, as the campaign relies more on small online contributions. May was his weakest month of 2008.
Meanwhile, Republican John McCain has been raising money almost nonstop. On May 31, he was just $11.5 million behind Obama. It's the closest gap they've had so far.
Douglass said the primary campaign is retooling for the fall election, and the new operation will attract even more small donors than before.
"This is not the same campaign which has attracted all this attention and zeal," she said. "This is one that we predict will attract even more passion."
But Steve Weissman at the independent Campaign Finance Institute said Obama depended on big donors and bundlers when he started running, back in January 2007. "And there's now evidence that, in getting the private financing that he wants for the general election, that he's going to have to cultivate large donors and bundlers again," he said.
Also on Wednesday, a coalition of watchdog groups called for the two campaigns to improve their disclosure of bundlers and small donors. The campaigns both identify their bundlers, but not in enough detail to reveal the networks they tap for contributions. The coalition, led by the Center for Responsive Politics, also says Obama's small-donor base should be disclosed at least to the extent of providing money totals by ZIP code. Campaign finance law doesn't cover bundlers at all, and it only requires one lump-sum total for contributions of $200 or less.
The good news for Obama is that if he can combine Clinton's bundlers with his own, his ability to raise big contributions would roughly double.
The bad news? Traditionally, it has been the big bundlers who are most likely to say: Remember me after Election Day.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. 9(MDYwMzgxODUyMDE2MzQ1Nzg1MTRlNTA2Yg000))
