WASHINGTON (AFP) — Democratic White House hopeful Barack Obama raised a huge 52 million dollars in June, more than double the haul of his Republican rival John McCain in the same month, his campaign said Thursday.
The fundraising bonanza confounded some recent reports that Obama's fundraising juggernaut might be slowing after he beat Hillary Clinton to the Democratic nomination.
Obama's June total takes his record breaking fundraising for the 2008 race, the most expensive in history, to more than 330 million dollars.
His total for the month was just shy of his all-time record monthly fundraising coup, when he piled up 55 million dollars at the height of his Democratic primary clash with Hillary Clinton in February.
Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe announced Obama's fundraising coup in an early morning email to the Illinois senator's supporters.
"Because of your generosity and commitment, we're reporting to the press today that this campaign is in a very strong financial position," Plouffe said.
"In the month of June, supporters like you helped raise 52 million dollars."
The Democratic National Committee said its fundraising combined with that raised by Obama totalled 92 million dollars at the end of June.
McCain's campaign announced last week that the Republican had raised 22 million dollars in June -- his best month ever.
McCain and the Republican National Committee had 95 million dollars combined on hand for the general election.
The Obama campaign said that the average donation to the campaign was 68 dollars, suggesting that Obama's massive grass roots operation, which helps him tap new sources of funding still offers him a formidable advantage.
Last month, Obama caused a storm after going back on an earlier undertaking to accept public financing for his campaign, giving him an advantage, as he will be able to raise as much money as he wants to buy vital television ads.
He has also started fundraising events with Clinton, and will hope to tap some of her Democratic donors to swell his coffers heading into the general election.
McCain has already said that he will accept public financing for his campaign, which caps his spending between the Republican convention in early September and the general election at 85 million dollars.
Obama's fundraising edge could offer him a vital advantage over McCain as he attempts to run a campaign throughout all 50 states.
It will allow him to blitz major television markets almost constantly in key electoral battlegrounds.
Some analysts have argued however, that McCain may not need as much cash as Obama, as his life story, as a Vietnam war hero, is much better known to voters. Obama is not as well known and is fighting smear campaigns and rumors circulating about him on the Internet.
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