Obama rolls past Hillary in fund-raising race

WASHINGTON — Sen. Barack Obama has been eager to change the presidential campaign conversation away from national polls, where he trails Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Well, money talks. Subject changed.

On Sunday, the Obama campaign announced second-quarter fund-raising totals that show him outraising Clinton by $10 million in contributions that can be spent on the Democratic presidential primary contest.

Obama's campaign on Sunday reported raising at least $31 million for the primary contest and an extra $1.5 million for the general election from April through June, aided by the contributions of 154,000 individual donors.

Clinton's campaign announced late Sunday that she had raised $21 million for the primary. With general election contributions added, aides said her total sum would be "in the range" of $27 million. Candidates can only use general election money if they win their party's nomination.

Obama's whopping amount is a record for a Democratic candidate at this stage of a presidential contest and ensures his place as a top contender for the Democratic nomination. It steals the spotlight from Clinton, his main rival. And it establishes the two of them as the fund-raising juggernauts of the entire presidential field.

Counting this quarter's surge of donors, the first-term senator from Illinois has received donations from more than 258,000 donors through the first half of the year, an extraordinary figure at this stage of the campaign. Obama raised $25.7 million in the first three months of the year.

"Together, we have built the largest grass-roots campaign in history for this stage of a presidential race," Obama said in a statement Sunday. "That's the kind of movement that can change the special interest-driven politics in Washington and transform our country. And it's just the beginning."

The Clinton campaign would not divulge its number of donors.

Meanwhile, Democrat John Edwards raised more than $9 million from April through June and relied on nearly 100,000 donors during the first half of the year.

The fund-raising total met the campaign's stated goal but was about $5 million less than what he took in during the first three months of the year. The campaign has said it is on track to raise $40 million by the Iowa caucuses in January.