Chuck Todd:
The Clinton campaign is maintaining that its cash flow is good, but just asking: What happened to those constant Clinton announcements a month ago that they were bringing in $1 million-plus a day online? And how is it that Obama outspent Clinton 5-to-1 on TV last week, per TV ad analyst Evan Tracey? Obama spent $2 million on ads in Pennsylvania, Indiana, and North Carolina, compared with Clinton’s $400,000 in Pennsylvania.
Actually, both campaigns have stopped what had been daily bragging about their cash intake. We'll have a better idea soon enough when they announce their March results, but her February numbers didn't inspire confidence, nor her inability to pay her bills.
The New York senator’s presidential campaign ended February with $33 million in the bank, according to a report filed last week with the Federal Election Commission, but only $11 million of that can be spent on her battle with Obama.
The rest can be spent only in the general election, if she makes it that far, and must be returned if she doesn’t. If she had paid off the $8.7 million in unpaid bills she reported as debt and had not loaned her campaign $5 million, she would have been nearly $3 million in the red at the end of February.
Obama had over $33 million on hand at the end of February after accounting for his debts (about $625K).
So when will the campaigns announce their March numbers? They have a couple of weeks to do so.
If the Clinton campaign had good numbers, you'd think she'd release them sooner rather than later in order to squash these "she's running out of money" stories. That's exactly what she did last month, when she announced her impressive February haul of $35 million before the month was even out. Obama waited until after his Oho and Texas losses (and yes, he lost the Texas popular vote, regardless of his delegate win) and used his haul of $55 million to blunt the impact of her victories.
My guess is that the longer she waits to release her numbers, the worse they are. What about Obama? If he had great numbers, you'd think he'd announce quickly to reinforce the "we've won this thing already" narrative. So either they are waiting because they're not confident they've outraised Clinton, or they're waiting to one-up her when she finally does announce.
Update: To clarify, Obama's $33 million at the end of February was all available for primary use. He has a bit more earmarked for the general election, but it's not a significant amount.