McCain Fund-Raising Picks Up

JohnMcCain raised $27 million in July and has $21 million on hand to spend, his campaign manager Rick Davis announced Friday.

McCain raised $21 million in June. The Republican Party overall also had a good month of July, and now has $75 million in cash. Much of the money was raised with the help of President George Bush, despite his lagging public approval numbers. The combined war chest equals $96 million.

The Arizona senator has had some difficulty raising the substantial sums that his Democratic opponent Barack Obama (D., Ill.) has. However, the numbers show him improving every month since he became the presumptive nominee.

The money should come in handy. The McCain campaign has ramped up ad spending in an effort to attack Obama's record. The campaign has decided on ad-campaign strategies over get out the vote efforts so far.

Friday, it introduced a new advertisement called "Taxman." The ad points to a variety of tax hikes Obama has voted for in the past and suggests he would continue to raise taxes.

Other controversial ads have included one called "Celebrity." The ad likened Obama to celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Britney Spears and attacked him as too inexperienced to lead rather than focusing on specific campaign proposals.

The McCain campaign reported it had received funds from more than 600,000 individual donors, and the Republican Party added another 1 million donors.

Obama has held the edge in donors and funds for much of the race. His campaign recently reached an impressive milestone of donors, hitting 2 million. Hari Sevugan, a campaign spokesperson, in an email noted the campaign has no indication yet on its July number.