McCain Raises $27M in July

Defends use of same tactic used against him in 2000

(NEWSER) - John McCain defended his use of robocalls on Fox News Sunday, arguing his attacks on Barack Obama are different from the slanderous calls that targeted him during the 2000 primaries, Politico reports. “These are legitimate and truthful and they are far different than the phone calls that were made about my family,” he said. On other talk shows:

• Former Republican Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich told This Week with George Stephanopoulos that Colin Powell’s endorsement of Obama “eliminated the experience argument."

$43M since '89 on lobbying, donations greases bailout wheels

(NEWSER) - Goldman Sachs has given Washington plenty of reasons to help it out—43 million reasons, to be precise. Goldman bankers have been the nation’s biggest campaign contributors this year, and have poured more than $43 million into lobbying and campaign war chests since 1989, ABC News reports. “They are almost in a class by themselves,” one analyst said. More»

GOP governors fund is major finance loophole

(NEWSER) - Desperate to keep up with Barack Obama's powerful fundraising apparatus, John McCain’s allies have found ways of skirting the very campaign finance laws the Arizona senator helped write, the Wall Street Journal reports. Republican strategists are pushing donations toward a fund used to elect governors—not subject to dollar limits—on the theory that state-level pushes will boost the top of the ticket. More»

He's already shown he knows how to spend

(NEWSER) - Republicans not used to worrying about money are sweating pennies, given John McCain's relatively inept fundraising in the face of an unprecedented Democratic war chest. Barack Obama, by conservative estimates, will have $300 million to McCain’s federal cap of $85 million for the general-election campaign, Politico reports—and with that kind of money, Obama could force McCain to play defense in traditionally red states. More»

Loyal donors kicked to curb as candidate burnishes image

(NEWSER) - John McCain has been purging his campaign of lobbyists, which has left more than a few feeling betrayed. These are the people, after all, who stuck through McCain when his primary chances looked grim, and kept his campaign financially above water. “If it was OK to have these people working for you in February, why is it not OK today?” asked one lobbyist. More»