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CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Nothing cures money woes like winning. Hillary Clinton's campaign was feeling so good about fundraising after last night's New Hampshire primary win that officials opened up the weekly call to top donors to the press (though they didn't let us ask questions).
Since midnight last night, the campaign took in more than $1.1 million online, chairman Terry McAuliffe told donors around 4:45 p.m. Eastern. "I guarantee you we are going to beat Senator [Barack] Obama's campaign in fundraising" in January, he said. Clinton raised $24 million to spend on the primary in the last three months of 2007, McAuliffe said.
Clinton aides were panicking about money after losing the Iowa caucuses, but winning Tuesday seems to have shored up the campaign's financial situation. Donors pledged $5 million in new cash in the past 48 hours, McAuliffe said.
Obama, meanwhile, seems to be free of money worries for now, too. His campaign manager, David Plouffe, reported in an e-mail at 11:20 a.m. today that the campaign's online operations took in $500,000 after midnight Tuesday -- despite Obama's losing. Obama raised only $22.5 million for the primary, but he raised an additional $8 million in the first week of January. "We continue to build a grassroots movement that makes us best-positioned to compete financially in the primaries and caucuses coming up," Plouffe wrote.
Both sides will need the cash. The 22 primaries and caucuses on Feb. 5 look like they could be decisive; competing in even a handful of them will cost far more than New Hampshire and Iowa did. Big states with expensive TV markets like California, Illinois, New York and New Jersey are all in play. Each campaign is adding staff on the ground in key states as well.
