Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton spent a second straight day holding fundraisers in California on Thursday as part of an all-out effort to keep pace with the record amounts of money raised by Sen Barack Obama, whose campaign announced that it pulled in $40 million in March, double Clinton’s $20 million take.While her Democratic presidential rival took the day off in Chicago, Clinton held two fundraisers in Los Angeles and planned to raise money in New Mexico this weekend. She will leave the campaign trail on Wednesday to attend an Elton John concert in New York organised with a goal to raise $2 million.In an attempt to further tap the online donor market that has largely funded Obama’s effort, Clinton plans to launch a new Internet program on Friday that lets supporters choose where their money will go, much as wedding guests select gifts from a registry. Instead of china and crystal, users can purchase campaign signs, van rentals, airtime on radio stations and doorknob advertisements.Even Clinton’s most vigorous boosters expressed exhaustion by the call to raise more money. “I’ll tell you, after a year of doing this, it’s like asking me to run a half-marathon after I’ve run a marathon,” said Mark Aronchick, a co-chairman of Clinton’s Pennsylvania campaign, who is organizing five fundraisers over the next eight days.Clinton, too, had a hint of resignation in her answer to reporters asking whether she is now being outspent “two to one” by Obama. “Sometimes three to one, four to one, five to one” she said with a laugh. “I’m getting used to being outspent.”Obama’s immense cash flow — he has raised more than $240 million to Clinton’s $175 million — allows him to compete as aggressively in the final primary contests as he did in the early days of the race. He is vastly outspending Clinton in Pennsylvania, with $3 million in television and radio ads, including a Spanish-language TV ad airing in the Philadelphia area, compared with an estimated $500,000 that Clinton is spending in the state, which will hold its primary on April 22.Obama’s heavy investment in field offices, phone banks and other organizational efforts probably is where his financial edge will be most significant, said Mark Feldman, a former adviser to Al Gore who says he is neutral in the Democratic contest.“I bet if you scanned the number of campaign field offices they have, in some harder-to-reach places, you’d see that every voter is being pursued vigorously,” he said. “They’ve been able to put a lot of effort into chasing these voters.” Obama’s ability to capitalise on a sustained wave of online support has enabled him to spend almost all of his time campaigning. Clinton has attended more than a dozen fundraisers since January 1, and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, has appeared at more than 40, while Obama and his wife have attended fewer than 10 total during that time.
