Obama would seem to be primarily dependent upon his base when one looks at traditional African-American candidates who raise reasonable sums in Illinois, but often work towards turnout more than big money. Obama seems to be overcoming that with some impressive fundraising numbers (Registration required).
Two interesting things stand out. I didn’t realize the ceiling was that high–$12,000 per individual given Hull is self-financing. That is huge. Second, Obama is having success reaching out of state for cash and that significantly helps him in taking on Hynes who is trying to dry up the local pool of cash for this election.
While I doubt Obama could do as well as Dean on the internet, I’m noticing a lot of crossover appeal to their supporters. Such a strategy might help Obama as well, though certainly at a different scale.
Because Mr. Hull has signaled his intention of putting as much as $20 million of his own money into winning the primary, the recently enacted campaign finance reform law allows individuals to give up to $12,000, six times the normal legal limit, to his opponents."I find it easy" to raise money for the Obama campaign, says Bettylu Saltzman, a veteran North Shore Democratic fund-raiser and a member of Mr. Obama’s finance committee. "You say, ‘You can give $12,000’ and you might get $2,000, where otherwise you’d get $500."
Another factor is that Mr. Obama has tapped into a growing number of young, affluent African-American professionals, not only in Chicago but also in Boston, New York and Washington, D.C., major cities that have hosted Obama fund-raisers in recent months.
A basic part of the appeal is that Sen. Obama has the potential to be both the sole African-American U.S. senator at this point in time, as well as the first black Democratic male senator. In addition, this group of potential contributors grew considerably as the economy boomed during the 1990s.
"The pool is definitely larger," says Valerie Jarrett, who is chairing Sen. Obama’s 52-person finance committee, comparing this race with that in 1992, when the executive vice-president of Habitat Co. and prominent civic leader was a major fund-raiser for Illinois Democrat Carol Moseley Braun in her first U.S. Senate race.
While more than two-thirds of Mr. Obama’s 3,000-plus donors have given less than $25, he’s also picking up major financial support from traditional Democratic contributors, sometimes referred to as "lakefront liberals." His finance committee includes party stalwarts such as Marjorie Benton, Irving Harris, Martin Koldyke, Daniel Levin, Abner Mikva, Newton Minow, Penny Pritzker and John Schmidt.