Bush, Kerry set campaign fundraising records

WASHINGTON - President George W Bush's re-election campaign has spent nearly US$130 million ($216.95 million) but with a record US$200 million raised, he still has US$71.5 million cash on hand and more money coming in, the campaign said on Thursday.

Democratic challenger John Kerry reported raising a total of US$115 million, more than US$30 million of which was taken in during a 20-city tour last month. The Kerry campaign pointed out the US$115 million broke Bush's 2000 record of US$100 million for a nonincumbent running for president.

Both sides used their reports to the Federal Election Commission to try to underscore they have tremendous momentum in money-raising, and by extension, grass-roots support.

The Kerry campaign said it had over US$28 million cash on hand as of April 30. It said that at the beginning of March 2003, the Bush campaign enjoyed a cash-on-hand advantage of 55 to 1, but in just two months, Kerry had closed the gap to about 2.5 to 1.

For the first time in American politics, both candidates decided not to accept federal funds and the restrictions that goes with that money until they are officially the candidates. After the nominating conventions later this summer, Bush and Kerry will each receive about US$75 million in federal funds.

Much of Bush's money has gone to fund a television advertising campaign in 18 battleground states and national cable networks aimed at promoting Bush and accusing Kerry of being a waffler weak on defence and national security.

The ad campaign has been credited with keeping Kerry from taking a big lead in the race with Bush's job approval ratings suffering from chaos in Iraq. The candidates are in a neck-and-neck race.

The Bush campaign reported to the FEC that through April 30, it had raised more than US$200 million from more than 939,600 contributors. The US$200 million is far more than any campaign in US history.

The Kerry campaign said in the first four months of 2004, JohnKerry.com has raised US$35 million online. It said nearly 90 per cent of internet contributions were for US$100 or less, and that 150,000 Americans contributed over US$10 million in April in direct mail alone.

Bush has stopped headlining fund-raising events on his own behalf and has switched to raising money for Republican Party candidates in the November 2 election.

Even so, the Bush campaign raised another US$15.6 million in April, US$10.9 million of it coming from direct mail and phone contributions.

"We expect that we'll have the resources we need. We continue to receive contributions primarily from our internet and from our small donor programmes, such as mail and phone," said Bush campaign spokesman Terry Holt.

The US$71.5 million cash on hand is to fund the Bush campaign up to the August 30 - September 2 Republican nominating convention in New York.

Seeking to deflate Democratic allegations that Bush is backed mostly by wealthy Americans, the Bush campaign said it had made history by becoming at this point in May the first campaign ever to have the support of more than 1 million contributors.

This was nearly triple the 345,000 contributions Bush received in 2000.

"President Bush's supporters from every county in this nation are building the largest grass-roots campaign in presidential history," said campaign manager Ken Mehlman.

Bush campaign officials said they saw no need to restart a major donor programme because plenty of money was coming into the campaign from smaller contributors.

Still active is the campaign's Mavericks programme in which younger Republicans commit to raising US$50,000.

- REUTERS