Obama Surprises the Experts

Everyone expected Hillary Clinton to be big winner in the Q1 fundraising totals, and Barack Obama was supposed to well but still fall short. Obama surprised a few folks with his announced totals:

ABC News has learned that the $23.5 million Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., raised for his presidential campaign for use in the primaries is more than that raised by the Democratic frontrunner, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.

Of the $26 million Clinton has raised in the first quarter of 2007 for her presidential campaign, approximately $20 million is to be used in the primaries and caucuses, sources told ABC News.

Clinton campaign officials cautioned that its campaign was still ascertaining how much of its $26 million raised is available for primary use.

Sources told ABC News that while that is accurate, roughly $20 million is designated for the primary — it could be slightly less or slightly more. Either way, Obama raised more primary cash than Clinton.

What's even more interesting is the total number of donors. Obama had 100,000 individual donors, including 50,000 on the internet. Hillary's total number of donors was only 50,000 which means Obama has much broader support. The other day I predicted that Obama would out-raise Clinton in Q2, and that looks even more likely given these numbers.