Clark Expects to Finish Year With $9.5M

SHARON THEIMER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential hopeful Wesley Clark is confident he can finish the year with about $9.5 million raised despite his campaign's late start, his campaign said Friday.

Clark expects to take in about $6 million from October through December, on top of about $3.5 million raised in the first two weeks of his campaign in September, spokeswoman Kym Spell said.

Clark is holding two or three fund-raisers a day and "literally cannot hold as many fund- raisers as people want us to hold," Spell said. Clark's entry into the race came after months of urging by supporters, and months of campaigning and fund raising by his rivals.

The Clark campaign's optimism about its funding prospects comes as rival Howard Dean, who began his campaign last year, leans toward opting out of the Watergate-era public financing system and its spending limits.

<snip>

http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/7210000.htm

note: Dean has already raised $5 million this quarter.

I'm sure we can do better than that.

$10 million dollars this month---he's already raised $5 million. With the union endorsements next week, that's going to pad his coffers very thickly......so Clark's fundraising prowess is going to be diminished. I feel sorry for Clark....

otherwise they would have no reason to release this to the press. Setting up lowered expectations to go into the early primaries with some momentum.

Clark learned his lesson after he called himself the frontrunner. Political wisdom (oddly enough) prefers a sort of pessimism on this issue.

I wasn't too pleased with the other Dem Candidates so when Clark announced I was kinda paying attention.

Just can't seem to recall him saying "I'm the frontrunner". :shrug:

I do appreciate the comments on how candidates like to leak low expectations... makes perfect sense and I hadn't thought of ite.

I still don't see how they could opt-out.

I had expected Clark to take in between $15-$20 million this quarter… and I know some of his supporters did too.

That's the number that they're leaking to the press. They've probably already got that much in the bank.

on the other hand, this is the time to show that your campaign is still viable, so you have to release a large enough number to convince the undecideds that you have staying power.

Even when Dean's people reported early lower numbers in August, the tease of higher numbers leaked out quickly, to ramp up excitement. If Clark's figures are going to be significantly higher than 9.5M, that should leak out soon.

Curious what the others are predicting at this point. I know Dean raised $5 Mil in Oct, and will probably raise a lot this month too.

I haven't seen anything about that prior to these posts?

According to the Associated Press, Dean has raised five million dollars since Sept. 30, meaning the campaign is already “bumping up against the $45 million cap, when matching money is factored in.”

http://www.msnbc.com/news/958689.asp#November7

I wonder why they released that figure? Any thoughts?

since Dean would have to stop fundraising at this point if he doesn't opt out.

Dean released the $5 Million figure to make it clear that he has raised a lot of money so far this quarter, and will soon hit the $45 Million cap. It's part of the argument for opting out.

to give through January. I wonder if he'll tell us tomorrow.

$0 since I am maxed out, but my husband isn't, so he pledged $1400 (which will take him to the max also). My sister-in-law pledged $100.

which is basically what I've been doing anyway, but I plan to give more.

:bounce: