Obama Leads Money Race With $7m Raised in 24 Hours

Barack Obama today declared a new front in the Democratic battle for the White House - the money race - announcing that he had raised more than $7m in less than 48 hours.

Obama's ease at raising funds was seen as a sign of strength for his candidacy as the contest moves through the next phase of primary contests.

The announcement comes as both the Obama and Clinton camps try to demonstrate momentum ahead of primary contests in Louisiana, Washington state and Nebraska on Saturday, and Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC, next week.

The Clinton team tried to exert its own pressure on Obama, challenging him to debate once a week through the next round of contests. Obama refused.

Obama's fund raising haul immediately deepened fears within the Clinton camp at being able to compete in those primaries - in Louisiana, Virginia and Washington, DC - where he is perceived to have an advantage.

Within a few hours of the announcement from Obama, the Clinton camp sent out an email to its own supporters claiming to have raised $4m in the 24 hours immediately after Super Tuesday.

Organizers then upped their goal to raising $6m in 72 hours.

But the upbeat emails were offset by Clinton's admission on Wednesday that she was forced to make a personal loan of $5 million to the campaign.

"She is not going to catch up. He is out raising her," a leading fundraiser for the Clinton campaign said. "If he has increased money to that extent it can really make a difference in terms of ground troops and the media."

Many of the Clinton campaign's identified supporters have already made the maximum donation of $2,300, forcing the campaign to extend its pool of contributors.

The current cash crunch is also a product of the campaign's own complacency. As recently as December, Clinton was publicly stating she expected to wrap up the nomination by Super Tuesday.

Fund raising operations were also scaled back. "The campaign felt that everything was so safely in the bag they stopped focusing on fund raising in December and that was the problem," the Clinton fund raiser said. "Everyone, including finance staff, started focusing on politics, including finance staff."

The consequences of that became clear last week when the Obama camp reported that it had raised $32m. The Clinton campaign raised more than $13m - although that may also include the personal loan from the Clintons.

Obama's $7m haul was not the largest of this season. Ron Paul, the Texas congressman who is a distant contender in the Republican race, took in $6 million in a single day last December.