John McCain
raised $27 million in July, his largest one-month
fundraising haul since clinching the Republican
presidential nomination, while the Republican National
Committee brought in nearly $26 million.
The GOP
nominee-in-waiting had $21 million available to spend as
August began, while the national party began the month
with $75 million to compete with the Democrats.
Republicans are
looking to even out the financial playing field in this
campaign, having trailed Democrats in overall fundraising
for most of the election cycle. The disparity reflects
the enthusiasm among Democrats that's lacking among
the GOP.
McCain has agreed
to accept some $84 million in public financing for the
general election, the only money he can spend after formally
accepting his party's nomination at the convention in
early September. He essentially needs to drain down
his campaign bank account this month.
That explains,
for example, why he can afford to spend some $6 million to
run TV advertising during the Olympics this month, and has
been able to blanket 11 battleground states with
multimillion dollars worth of commercials since first
going up on the air in earnest in June.
Democrat Barack
Obama has decided to forgo public financing for the
general election, relying instead on his significant
fundraising. (Liz Sidoti, AP)