Clinton nudges ahead of rivals with $26m campaign war chest

Hillary Clinton raised a record $26m (£13m) in the first quarter of this year, her campaign announced - a display of financial muscle calculated to scare rivals and create a sense of inevitability about her bid for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.

The first-quarter figures were legally required to be made public in mid-April. But, by jumping the gun, the New York senator forced most other Democratic candidates to do likewise, confirming in the process that the campaign now under way will be by far the most expensive in US history, costing at least $1bn in all.

John Edwards, for instance, reported total fundraising of $14m, which also beat the previous record for the quarter, set by the then vice-president Al Gore at the equivalent stage of 1999. It was not clear how much of that total flowed into his war chest in the past 10 days, since his wife, Elizabeth, revealed she was suffering from incurable breast cancer - an event which has generated immense public sympathy for the couple.

The conspicuous absentee yesterday however was Barack Obama, the young Illinois senator who runs second to Ms Clinton in most polls, and who would, if elected, be the first black president to occupy the White House. The Obama camp claims to have attracted an enormous sum in small individual donations, particularly via the internet, and seems to be delaying an announcement to garner the maximum publicity possible.

After transferring $10m left over from her Senate re-election campaign last year, Ms Clinton now has a total of $36m on hand.

The first-quarter figures were "staggering", said her campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle, and "dramatically exceeded our goals and expectations".

Her rivals however affected indifference, with an Edwards spokesman noting that success in the fundraising "silent primary" was anything but a reliable indicator of who would triumph in the real primaries. Next year, the bulk of these will be bunched into a few hectic weeks between mid-January and early March, by which time both parties' nominees will probably be known.

Ms Clinton's campaign has however been hugely helped by the increasing involvement of her husband. Bill Clinton's old network is the basis of his wife's impressive financial machine, and during the past fortnight the former president has notably stepped up his appearances on her behalf.

On the Republican side, two of the main nomination hopefuls had announced their figures by yesterday. Leading the pack was the former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney who announced he had raised $23m, an astonishing figure considering the latest Gallup poll gave him a derisory 3 per cent.

The former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, the current front runner for the nomination, said his donations now came to $15m, $10m of which had been raised in March alone. Meanwhile ,Senator John McCain of Arizona, who is currently on a fact-finding mission in Iraq, has publicly played down speculation about his financial performance, saying that only lately has he gone into full fundraising mode.

But Mr McCain's efforts to lower expectations also reflect the problems faced by all three "top tier" Republican candidates. He himself has failed to generate the excitement of his insurgent White House bid of 2000, while Mr Giuliani has been hit by a string of allegations about his personal life and business dealings.

Neither man is much trusted by conservatives, and much the same goes for Mr Romney, who is currently running third according to the latest polls.

Primary coffers

Candidates' first-quarter 2007 fundraising:

* HILLARY CLINTON, New York senator, Democrat, $26m

* MITT ROMNEY, former Massachusetts governor, Republican, $23m

* RUDY GUILIANI, former New York mayor, Republican, $15m

* JOHN EDWARDS, former Democratic vice-presidential candidate, $14m

* BILL RICHARDSON, New Mexico Governor and former ambassador, Democrat, $6m

* CHRISTOPHER DODD, Connecticut senator, Democrat, $4m

* JOE BIDEN, Delaware senator, Democrat, $3m

* BARACK OBAMA, Illinois senator, Democrat, and Republican JOHN McCAIN have yet to declare their funds