"We need to show that the voices of more than 1.5 million ordinary people donating whatever they can afford are more powerful than one person giving more than $11 million to their own campaign," Obama campaign manager David Plouffe wrote in an e-mail to supporters.
Clinton delivered a televised plea for new online donations in her election-night speech in Indianapolis. A similar appeal after her victory in the Pennsylvania primary two weeks earlier brought in $10 million in just 24 hours, aides said at the time.
There were no similar claims of post-Indiana fundraising success, however, and a campaign spokesman indicated that Clinton might put more money into the campaign in coming days.
She and her husband reported earning more than $109 million over the past eight years, and the amount she has lent her campaign was less than her income from book royalties and her salary as a senator from New York, a spokesman said.
Aides said she would continue to draw on assets jointly held with her husband as needed. Clinton called the loans "a sign of my commitment to this campaign. It's a sign of how much I believe in what we're trying to do."
Clinton met with superdelegates on Capitol Hill later in the day, aides said, trying to keep them from jumping to Obama and convince them that she would be the party's stronger nominee in the fall.
But Obama supporter Janet Napolitano, the governor of Arizona, said it was "time for the superdelegates to begin bringing this process to a close and announcing their preferences."
To clinch the nomination, Obama would need to pick up about one-third of the 220 undeclared superdelegates - elected and party officials who are free to choose either candidate.
Three more superdelegates declared their support for Obama yesterday, but his campaign indicated that it might be mid-June, after the final primaries, before enough superdelegates announce their support to give the Illinois senator the votes needed to be assured of the nomination.
None of the undeclared superdelegates in the Maryland congressional delegation budged this week. By one estimate, about 60 House Democrats, many of whom don't want to offend large numbers of their constituents by taking sides, have yet to commit to Obama or Clinton.
Rep. John Sarbanes of Baltimore said the latest primary results "suggest that we may be getting to some closure" and "we'll see how things pan out over the next few weeks."
Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin said uncommitted superdelegates are being lobbied "in a more aggressive manner," and he expects the pressure to become heavier in coming days. But he said he was unlikely to make an endorsement before the first week of June.
Obama had "a big day" in this week's primaries, said Cardin. "Combined with the story on Senator Clinton's money - that's more of an insider issue than it is to the public - but you're talking about the superdelegates, it's a factor."
Some Clinton superdelegates have wavered in their support and a few have switched sides, particularly those with large black constituencies, but Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger said he has no plans to abandon Clinton.
"In our business, one of the worst things you can do is to break a commitment," said the Baltimore County congressman. "You break a commitment, you really lose respect with your peers."
paul.west@baltsun.com matthew.brown@baltsun.com
