McCain, RNC start August with $96M

WASHINGTON — John McCain and the Republican National Committee (RNC) started August with a hefty $96 million, financially flush and strongly positioned to compete with prolific fundraiser Barack Obama and the Democratic Party.

McCain raised $27 million in July, his largest one-month fundraising haul since clinching the GOP presidential nomination, and had $21 million available to spend, while the RNC brought in nearly $26 million, leaving it with $75 million on hand to compete with the Democrats. McCain alone has 600,000 donors, while the party said it had reached 1 million.

By comparison, Obama recently surpassed 2 million contributors, giving him a larger pool of donors to hit up for money again. He and the Democratic National Committee have not disclosed their July takes.

Obama ahead in polls, narrowly

Democrat Barack Obama maintains a steady lead of 3.5 percentage points over Republican John McCain, according to the averages of six national polls this month compiled by the Web site www.RealClearPolitics.com.

More sobering for Obama is that at the same stage four years ago — a week out from the Democratic National Convention — Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry was ahead of President Bush in the polls. Kerry's average lead in six polls before the 2004 convention was narrower, however, at a single point.

Recent surveys in a dozen states that voted Republican in the last election show Obama running slightly ahead of McCain or only a few points behind. In Alaska, for example, a poll by the Democratic firm Hays Research Group last week showed Obama ahead by 5 percentage points. In Virginia, another so-called red state, three recent polls show Obama and McCain tied. In 2004, Alaskans gave Bush 61 percent of their votes, and he got 54 percent in Virginia.

There are no states that went Democratic in 2004 where McCain is currently ahead.

Also

Another record: The Secret Service projects the cost of protecting the presidential candidates will be almost $107 million, a record. That compares with $74 million in 2004. Malcolm Wiley, a Secret Service spokesman, said the bigger field of candidates and the fact that Obama was given a detail earlier than any candidate in history contributed to the higher cost.

VP mail? The Barack Obama campaign has promised that anyone who signs up will be "the first to know" the candidate's vice-presidential pick, via e-mail or text message.

Seattle Times news services