Obama fundraising falls in Ohio

Columbus Dispatch

COLUMBUS

The numbers don’t lie, but their significance is strongly contested.

President Barack Obama’s Ohio fundraising is down about $200,000 from four years ago, only about two-thirds of the amount from the same point in his 2008 campaign, a Dispatch analysis of data provided by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics shows.

Are donors just biding their time because, unlike four years ago, Obama is a sitting president who doesn’t face any tough primaries?

Could Ohio Democrats be tapped out by a shaky economy or the $30 million-plus campaign to defeat state Issue 2?

Or is the bloom off the rose for many Ohioans who enthusiastically helped the Democratic senator from Illinois smash fundraising records in the last presidential election?

The Obama campaign says the $200,000 gap in Ohio doesn’t tell the full story. Four years ago, Obama was engaged in a fight for survival in a multicandidate Democratic contest. This year, he has the field to himself, and is raising money not only for his own campaign but for other Democrats as well.

“Ohioans continue to show strong backing for President Obama and his agenda, fighting to create jobs, for a fairer economy that rewards hard work and responsibility, and to restore economic security for the middle class,” said Obama for America spokesman Tom Reynolds.

“Across the state, we have a broad base of grass-roots supporters, which is in stark contrast to the way other campaigns are running their operations, planning to rely on millions of dollars from Washington lobbyists and other special interests.”

The number of contributors nationally, sparked by those who have chipped in $250 or less, has doubled over four years ago, the campaign notes.

Data provided by the campaign show that more than 28,000 Ohioans have contributed this year. However, those same data show that while the nation’s six largest states also are the top six in contributors, the seventh-largest — Ohio — comes in only 13th.

Ohio GOP Chairman Kevin DeWine attributes Obama’s “lackluster fundraising totals” to voters’ frustration that the president’s job performance has not matched the promise of his 2008 campaign.

Three years after Obama was elected on the promise of “hope and change,” his “job-killing regulations and mandates have left Ohio families and job creators with less hope and a lot less change,” DeWine said.