Bush Campaign Sets Spending Record

President Bush's campaign set fund-raising and spending records last month, breaking the $201 million mark in money raised and reaching $126 million in cash spent for his re-election effort.

According to a campaign finance report filed Thursday with the Federal Election Commission, Mr. Bush started May with nearly $72 million left in the bank after using up nearly $31 million in April. His spending declined after March, when he spent roughly $50 million on his first wave of campaign ads.

Mr. Bush spent roughly $21 million on ads in April, his biggest expense last month. Among other major campaign costs, the campaign devoted more than $4 million to mailings, about $1.6 million to staff salaries, consultants and related costs, and $555,000 to phone banks.

The Bush campaign is trumpeting the fact that the money it raised came from over a million contributors from every county in America, CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller reports. The campaign says the average contribution was $153.

Mr. Bush has raised an additional $3 million this month, bringing his total to at least $204 million, which is nearly double the $110 million raised so far by Democratic rival John Kerry.

Mr. Bush must make his campaign fortune last until early September, when he is officially nominated at the Republican National Convention in New York and receives about $75 million in full government financing for the general-election phase of his campaign.

To sustain his spending at last month's rate through the summer, Mr. Bush would need to raise at least $50 million more. That would be possible at his current fund-raising rate: He took in about $15 million last month, with roughly two-thirds of that in donations of under $1,000 coming in through the mail or over the Internet.

Mr. Bush has stopped holding fund-raisers for himself and is focusing on raising money for the party and other GOP candidates.

The Republican's primary-season money must stretch about a month longer than Kerry's. The Massachusetts senator will receive his general-election financing at the Democratic National Convention in Boston in late July.

But Kerry has to make his $75 million government check last a month longer than Mr. Bush. And because the Republican convention is timed later than the Democratic gathering, the president will have about a month more to raise money from private contributors than Kerry.

Kerry planned to file his monthly campaign finance report Thursday. The presidential reports were due at the FEC at midnight.

Kerry's campaign said earlier that he raised at least $110 million through April, including a loan of roughly $6 million.

His campaign has raised roughly $7 million as part of a $10 million online fund-raising drive this month, pushing his total to a Democratic record of at least $117 million.

Both candidates opted out of public financing for the primary phase of the campaign, allowing them to spend unlimited amounts through the spring and summer until their party nominating conventions.