In the scramble for campaign cash, President Barack Obama has been able to collect millions by taking short car trips around the D.C. area. He’s tapping local lawyers and power brokers who fill up the nation’s capital and surrounding environs,
The Washington Post reported.
One recent trip to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in the District of Columbia netted about $1.5 million in just under an hour. The Post reports that Obama has pulled in about $20 million attending fundraisers within 1.4 miles of the White House.
Obama has attended some 24 fundraisers in the Washington area, second only to California. Overall, he has held 111 fundraisers this year.
“The city is set up for it,” Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, told the Post. “The apparatus is here, ready to mobilize.”
GOP challenger Mitt Romney has not ignored the Washington gold mine. He held a $50,000-per-person fundraiser in Georgetown and Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J., drew hundreds on Romney’s behalf to a fundraiser at the Willard Hotel.
According to a study by Naval Academy political science professor Brendan Doherty, Obama has held 183 fundraisers through July 18, a figure higher than the combined number of fundraisers done by Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton during the last two years of their first terms, the Post reported.
However, the Obama campaign counters that Bush and Republicans counted multiple events at a single site as a single fundraiser, the Post reported.
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