Obama, Democrats raise $70M for reelection bid

WASHINGTON—US President Barack Obama and his Democratic party over the past three months have raised more than $70 million for his reelection bid, surpassing a goal of $55 million, campaign officials announced Thursday.

“Together, Obama for America and the DNC [Democratic National Committee] raised more than $70 million. And it all happened during a summer when the president was focused on doing the job he was elected to do – a summer when we had to cancel a series of fundraising events and ask everyone to dig a little deeper,” the Obama for America campaign said in a statement.

The announcement, made by the organization’s campaign manager Jim Messina, said that 606,027 people donated to the Obama campaign during the third fundraising quarter of 2011, and that the average donation amount was $56.

“That’s more than twice as many donations than we had at this point in the historic 2008 campaign,” Messina said.

Money is the lifeblood of US political campaigns heavily reliant on television advertising, armies of staff, and costly travel – which Messina underscored in Thursday’s fundraising announcement.

“We are focused on building infrastructure that will help us win in 2012,” he said, making a fresh appeal for more donations in a tough political year for Obama, whose poll numbers have been steadily sinking in recent weeks.