US Democrats stack campaign cash as Republicans lag

Democratic White House hopefuls have opened a record fundraising gap of tens of millions of dollars over Republicans, setting the 2008 race on course to become the first billion dollar US election. Top Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are rewriting the record books with the richest hauls of cash.
Republicans, traditionally the higher campaign earners, are struggling with a sharp reversal of fortune. An approximate tally of total fundraising in the first six months of the year shows Democrats have pulled in at least 159 million dollars in fundraising cash combined.
Republicans have stacked up around 96 million dollars, for a staggering two-party total of more than 255 million dollars. The numbers are based on figures reported to the Federal Election Commission by candidates for the first three months of the year, and partial, unofficial announcements on fundraising for the period up until the end of June.
Experts have predicted that the November 2008 election will become the most expensive ever. The previous record was set in the 2004 presidential race, which cost a total of 880 million dollars, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign spending.
Obama, vying to become the first African-American US president, stunned observers by reporting he had raised 32.5 million dollars in the last three months alone a record for any Democratic candidate in a quarter the year before an election.
His total outstripped Clinton, who stashed around 27 million dollars into her campaign war chest in the second quarter of 2007, adding to more than 26 million in the first quarter and 10 million transferred from her senatorial campaign account.
Illinois senator Obama has now taken donations from more than 250,000 individuals so far this year, his campaign said. He has benefited particularly from small donations on the Internet.
Former senator John Edwards was third among the Democrats, with more than nine million dollars in the latest period, and former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson boosted his campaign with seven million dollars. Republicans have found it heavier going, hampered by President George W. Bush's rock-bottom approval ratings, and the loss of Congress to Democrats last year, party due to public anxiety over the Iraq war.
Former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, favourite in the polls for the Republicans, surpassed his party rival Mitt Romney and crammed 17 million dollars into his campaign coffers over the past three months, his campaign said Tuesday.