The president’s re-election campaign raised $42.8 million in the third quarter of 2011, down from the $47 million it raised in the second quarter. The amount raised in the most recent quarter is far below what former President George W. Bush raised during the same period in 2003.
Bush raised $50 million in the third-quarter of 2003, or an inflation adjusted $61.5 million, according to an inflation-calculator at the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
President Barack Obama’s campaign also helped to raise $23.7 million for the Democratic National Committee, far less than the $39 million raised during the second quarter. (RELATED: Obama uses auto bailout for 2012 campaign)
Obama’s third-quarter revenue-raising stalled, partly because his 2008 support among wealthy people has declined. The decline is especially apparent in New York’s financial district, which provided the president with roughly 20 percent of his 2008 campaign funds, according to Reuters.
However, campaign manager Jim Messina was able to claim the quarter’s combined total of $70 million was a success. Earlier news leaked that the campaign and the DNC were only expecting to raise a combined $55 million.
Together, Obama for America and the DNC 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 he had to cancel a series of fundraising events and ask everyone to dig a little deeper,” Messina declared in a morning email.
In the second quarter of 2003, President Bush raised $35 million for his re-election campaign, even though he attended fewer fundraisers than did Obama.
Bush’s fourth-quarter revenue, however, dipped to $47.5 million.
In the just reported quarter, 606,027 people sent in 766,000 donations, said Messina. There were 257,635 new donors. The average donation was $56, partly because the campaign pushed donors to send in $5 or $3 mini-donations in exchange for a chance to have dinner with Obama. So far, 982,967 different people have donated to the campaign.