David Brancaccio: There’s word this morning that President Obama raised $53 million in March. But campaign fundraising could get tougher for the President, as Marketplace’s John Dimsdale reports.
John Dimsdale: Obama has a big head start in campaign donations. He’s raised twice as much as Romney, mostly from smaller donors. But the president is still getting swamped in big-money fundraising.
Anna Greenberg: On the Democratic side, you don’t really have these rich individuals like the Koch brothers for example, who give at the level the Koch Brothers give.
That’s Anna Greenberg, a Democratic campaign strategist. The Koch Brothers, their company and employees have given $1.5 million to conservative campaigns and super PACs so far this election. Greenberg says in the last campaign, candidate Obama discouraged supporters from donating to outside Democratic allies.
Greenberg: The Obama campaign has clearly signaled this time around that they want progressive and Democratic donors to give to super PACs and outside efforts, which is sort of a reversal from 2008. Because they can’t compete with the super PACs.
Even with the disadvantages, Obama expects his smaller donors to match the Romney campaign dollar-for-dollar, each spending around $750 million on the race for president.
In Washington, I’m John Dimsdale for Marketplace.
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