http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/latimests/20040504/ts_latimes/bushkerryawashinmoneyBush, Kerry Awash in Money1 hour, 1 minute ago Add Top Stories - Los Angeles Times to My Yahoo!
By Lisa Getter Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — This year's presidential race — fueled by more than a million donors, including many who have never given before — is well on its way to becoming the country's first $1-billion political campaign, experts say.
The money is coming in small donations and large ones, online and in the mail, from wealthy philanthropists and immigrants who can't even vote. In part, it represents unprecedented interest in the campaign from people throughout the country.
Together, President Bush (news - web sites) and his presumptive challenger, Sen. John F. Kerry, have drawn money from 700,000 more individual donors than those who contributed to Bush and Democrat Al Gore (news - web sites) in the entire 2000 campaign, according to figures provided to The Times by the three campaigns.
Already, donations to Bush, Kerry and the Democrats who had contested the Massachusetts senator for the party's nomination have exceeded more than $400 million — more than double what was raised at this point four years ago.
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