As usual, the Edwards campaign is inclusive of bloggers. Today, I participated on a conference call about the first quarter fundraising numbers, along with reports from the major media outlets and other bloggers.
I'm happy to report that Edwards for President Deputy Campaign Manager Jonathan Prince told us the campaign has raised in excess of $14 million. Of that, around $1 million or maybe a bit less is general election funds that can't be spent until Edwards gets the nomination.
The Edwards campaign raised just under $3.3 million online, thanks to all of you who donated. There were over 37,000 online contributors.
The total of over $14 million is almost twice as much as Edwards raised in the first quarter of the 2004 campaign. Jonathan Prince said it is more than enough for them to be highly competitive in the campaign, and it exceeds their budget by $4 million. Jennifer Swanson, the Finance Director for the campaign, was also on the call.
Prince also noted that their financial community has expanded significantly beyond the base the Edwards campaign had in 2004.
He also pointed out that history has shown that money is not the key. Once you have raised enough money to get your message out, at some point raising more is just diminishing returns.
This was very positive news for the Edwards campaign, which has now proven that Edwards is a serious contender.