Obama Fund-Raising Team Encouraged by February Haul

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2012/03/06/obama-fund-raising-team-encouraged-by-february-haul/?mod=WSJBlog&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wsj%2Fwashwire%2Ffeed+%28WSJ.com%3A+Washington+Wire%29

Obama Fund-Raising Team Encouraged by February Haul

By Peter Nicholas


After two days of private meetings in Charlotte, N.C., some members of President Barack Obama’s campaign fund-raising team said they were encouraged by internal reports showing that donations are coming in at strong clip so far in the first quarter of 2012.

The Obama campaign’s National Finance Committee met Sunday and Monday in the city hosting the 2012 Democratic National Convention. Campaign officials who attended the meetings included campaign manager Jim Messina, and Julianna Smoot, a deputy campaign manager.

The deadline for filing campaign reports covering the month of February is March 20, but some who attended said they learned the campaign’s fund-raising haul last month was one of the most impressive to date. They declined to discuss specific numbers.

“On the fund-raising side we’re doing very well,’’ said one person who was at the meetings. “The only thing you have to remember is the opposition will probably end up outspending us because of the super PACs’’ – independent groups that can accept unlimited sums of money on behalf of particular candidates.

To date, Obama’s campaign has raised about $137 million – more than the combined take of the four major Republican presidential candidates, according to data collected by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics.