Americans Vote with Their Pocketbooks
The campaign headquarters of Democratic senator and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton announced on Sunday that it collected $26 million for her campaign fund in the first three months of the year. That is a record for American elections, her campaign manager, Patti Solis Doyle, noted in an extremely enthusiast statement, adding that it is also indication of the scope of her support, and exceeded their goals and hopes. Of that sum, $4.2 million was collected over the Internet. Her opponents reminded them that campaign funding is no guarantee of victory.
In addition to her record donations this year, Clinton has $10 million left unspent from her senate campaign last year. Washington observers say that campaign contributions are a good indicator of a candidate's viability. With that in mind, Clinton's numbers are convincing campaign PR. During his campaign in 1999, George W. Bush raised $7.6 million in the first three months of the year. His opponent Al Gore raised $8.9 million. In 2003, all candidates from both parties only collected $31 million in the same period.
The huge resources at her disposal do not automatically translate into votes, however. Republican presidential candidate Phil Graham collected $13.5 million in 1995 – a huge amount at the time – but his ambitions were soon crushed. Nor does the monetary figure reflect the quantity of supporters. Clinton's main competitor for the democratic nomination, Barack Obama, has yet to make his campaign take, coming from 83,000 Americans, public, but he has already stated that it is sufficient for victory.
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All the Article in Russian as of Apr. 03, 2007
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