Inside Politics

Funding lead

Aided by aggressive Internet campaigns, Howard Dean and Wesley Clark have raised the most money among Democratic candidates in the final quarter of 2003, according to preliminary estimates.

Mr. Dean, the Democratic front-runner, will have raised more than $14 million in the final three months, pushing his yearly total to almost $40 million, the Associated Press reports. Campaign manager Joe Trippi called on donors to push the quarterly total to $14.8 million, the amount the campaign raised from July through September.

Mr. Clark, the retired Army general who entered the race in September, will have raised between $10 million and $12 million in the fourth quarter, for a total of almost $15 million since becoming a candidate.

By raising almost as much money as Mr. Dean in the fourth quarter and accepting federal matching funds, Mr. Clark should be financially competitive with the former Vermont governor in the near term.

Clark and Clinton

Democratic presidential hopeful Wesley Clark’s new television commercial includes a clip of him and Bill Clinton.

It’s the first ad of the 2004 campaign to include an image of the former president, the Associated Press reports.

The clip lasts only a few seconds and shows Mr. Clinton walking from a podium at the White House to place the Presidential Medal of Freedom over Mr. Clark’s head, honoring his fellow Arkansan for his work in Kosovo as NATO supreme allied commander.

It is one of several scenes in the 30-second ad that was to begin airing last night in New Hampshire, where Mr. Clark is trailing Howard Dean and John Kerry in polls. The commercial includes footage of Mr. Clark with a short-order cook, a soldier and schoolchildren.

As the Clinton clip is shown, an announcer in the ad notes that Mr. Clark is a leader who has been “decorated for valor and for service in our country.”

“Mr. Clinton’s name is not mentioned, but it’s obvious that the footage is meant to align the retired Army general with the former president,” AP reporter Liz Sidotti writes.

Dozens of former Clinton staffers are working on Mr. Clark’s campaign.

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