Posted on 11/21/2003 9:18:08 AM PST by NativeNewYorker
Nov. 21 (Bloomberg) -- Democratic presidential candidate Wesley Clark gained about $6 million for his campaign since Oct. 1 as he tapped into some of the same money raisers who supported former President Bill Clinton and Senator Hillary Clinton.
Clark is ``just under half way'' to his goal of raising $12 million in the current quarter, spokesman Matt Bennett told Bloomberg News. Rival Democratic candidates Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and Missouri Representative Richard Gephardt raised about $4 million each in the in the previous third quarter and haven't reported contributions for this quarter.
Financing for Clark's campaign has been bolstered by fund raisers with ties to the Clintons such as Alan Patricof, who headed Hillary Clinton's money raising for the 2000 election. Clark has enough to finance his campaign through the first state primary elections and possibly emerge as the main rival to former Vermont Governor Howard Dean, said Larry Sabato, Director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.
``The goal of all the serious candidates, save Dean, is to become the anti-Dean,'' Sabato said. If Clark ``has enough money, he might be in a good position to continue the battle with Dean through February and into March.''
Dean leads Democrats in fundraising with at least $31 million, collecting $14.8 million in the third quarter alone, according to campaign announcements and disclosures to the Federal Election Commission.
Clark raised $3.5 million in the two weeks following his Sept. 17 entry into the campaign, bringing his total amount raised to about $9 million.
Back Again
``Fund raising is going very well,'' Patricof, Vice Chairman of private equity firm Apax Partners, said in a telephone interview before Clark appeared at several New York fund-raising events yesterday. `` We've had a lot of people involved in previous campaigns who are back again.''
Clark's growing donor support isn't matched by surging support in polls. In Iowa, which holds the nation's first caucus on Jan. 19, Clark trails five of his eight rivals with 4 percent support, according to a Selzer and Co. poll of 501 likely caucus goers taken from Nov. 2 to Nov. 5. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points. Clark isn't campaigning in Iowa. Dean has 20 percent support, second to Gephardt, who has 27 percent, according to the poll.
In New Hampshire, which holds its primary Jan. 27 and where Clark is campaigning, he also trails the same five rivals, with 3 percent support, according to a Marist College poll of 447 likely Democratic primary voters conducted Nov. 11 to Nov. 13. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus five percentage points. Dean leads with 44 percent support, followed by Kerry with 23 percent, the poll shows.
Given Dean's propensity to put his foot in his mouth and pull anecdotes from his a**, on some days Dean himself is the anti-Dean.
This saves us a lot of effort. If Clark wasn't in this race, we'd have to dig a really big hole in the ground for these folks to pour their money into.
Clark is excepting campaign funds from China??
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