Campaign Fund-raising, Campaign Funds | featured news

Native American tribes, wielding new clout with casino income, are betting strongly on Obama's reelection. At a July fundraiser in the elegant Mandarin Oriental hotel near Washington's Tidal Basin, President Obama met with some of his most steadfast supporters — two dozen political and business leaders eager to write sizable checks to help keep him in the White House.

A month and a half before Election Day, President Obama is winning, former President Bill Clinton said Sunday, citing a raft of recent polls that show Obama widening a lead in several key swing states.

Americans don't like all the cash that's going to super political action committees and other outside groups that are pouring millions of dollars into races for president and Congress.

President Obama in August raised more money than challenger Mitt Romney for the first time in three months, a sign that the Republican spending advantage in the fall could be smaller than previously thought.

Wall Street is paying big time to influence this election. The financial industry is on track to break its 2008 campaign spending record of $170 million, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics cited by CNNMoney. So far, Wall Street has spent $164 million donating to candidates and political groups, and CRP estimates the final tally of Wall Street cash will reach $2.5 billion.

The Associated Press has learned that Mitt Romney's presidential campaign has raised at least $100 million in August for the third consecutive month.

Just minutes after the end of the Republican convention, President Obama appealed to his supporters for campaign cash. "Tonight was their night," Obama wrote in an e-mail. "But our focus must be on tomorrow." And presumably next week, when Obama and the Democrats hold their own convention in Charlotte.

A little more than a year ago, Frank VanderSloot contributed $1million to a "super PAC" supporting Mitt Romney. Now, the Idaho-based health products executive is a sought-after donor at the Republican National Convention as he makes the rounds of independent groups backing the GOP ticket.

All the political attention might be focused on Republicans or even Tropical Storm Isaac, but that's not stopping President Obama from asking for more campaign money. In a new fundraising e-mail today geared to the swing state of Iowa, Obama says he's losing "the air war" and needs $5 or more from donors to pay for more campaign commercials.

Mitt Romney's success in raising hundreds of millions of dollars in the costliest presidential race ever can be traced in part to a secretive data-mining project that sifts through Americans' personal information - including their purchasing history and church attendance - to identify new and likely, wealthy donors, The Associated Press has learned....