Former Bush Donors: Still Hesitant About Backing McCain

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http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docid=news-000002892934

John McCain may be the presumed Republican presidential nominee, but he’s still not connecting with a critical group of donors the way President Bush did during his 2004 re-election campaign.

The extensive network of partisan supporters that helped President Bush break fundraising records on his way to two terms in office has, for an array of reasons, yet to rally around the Arizona senator.

According to a Congressional Quarterly analysis, only about 5,000 of the 62,800 donors who gave the maximum contribution of $2,000 to Bush — roughly 8 percent — had given to McCain as of April 30.

Although the general election is still months away, the hesitancy on the part of former Bush donors may point to larger fundraising challenges for McCain. So far, he has been out-raised by his Democratic counterparts, tallying only $101 million in receipts through the end of April compared to $272 million for Illinois Sen. Barack Obama , the presumed Democratic nominee. The huge fundraising gap represents a monumental switch from the past two presidential elections, when Bush enjoyed a significant fundraising edge over his Democratic opponents. At this stage of the campaign in 2004, the president had raised nearly $204 million.

“It’s early, but there are troubling signs that he’s not getting financial support from significant numbers of Republicans,” said Jan Baran, a campaign finance attorney with Wiley Rein and a former counsel to the Republican National Committee.