"Despite the 2002 passage of the McCain-Feingold/Shays-Meehan Campaign Finance Reform Bill, Democrats and Republicans are raising record amounts of cash for the 2004 elections," the Wall Street Journal reports.
"President Bush is expected to report having raised $37 million in the first quarter, which ended Wednesday. The windfall has helped him surpass his low-end fund-raising goal of $170 million."
Meanwhile, Sen. John Kerry "reported raising $50 million in the quarter -- exceeding the total raised by former Vice President Al Gore during the entire 2000 primary campaign." And Kerry "has tapped a robust source of small donors on the Internet. His campaign has raised roughly $1 million a day via the Web -- a pace that outshines that of former rival Howard Dean."