Barack aims for 350,000 donors

The Obama campaign today sent a letter saying that it was aiming for a goal of 350,000 donors and 500,000 donations by the end of September, the close of the third fundraising quarter.

Currently they have 333,774 donors who have made 472,524 contributions.

Now at the end of the second quarter, Obama had a total of 258,000 donors with more than 100,000 donors in the first quarter and about 150,000 in the second.

So it looks like this time around the campaign will be hard-pressed to get 100,000 contributors with just several days left in the month.

Has the Obama fundraising phenomenon peaked?

Maybe at least in terms of the breadth of donors. The campaign still had some very major fundraisers this time including the Oprah bash and presumably still could do as well as previous quarters in terms of overall money raised. Indeed they could still exceed those totals.

Also, it might not make much of a difference if Obama is still able to outraise the other candidates including Hillary Clinton in money available for the primary.

Compared to last quarter, the Clinton campaign is rather low-key on fundraising and appears satisfied with its strong lead in the polls. The Clinton website is not pushing in major fundraising goals. In comparison, John Edwards has a "10 Days/$1 million" drive going on at this site.

More endorsements

Obama picked up the endorsement of correctional officers in New York City today and also the support of former Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Gordon Fischer.