Edwards: $9 Million on Hand

I interviewed former Congressman David Bonior, who is Sen. John Edwards’s national campaign manager, this afternoon. We spoke at length about the campaign’s decision to accept matching funds, and he mentioned that right now it looks like the campaign has about $9 million in cash on hand. Noting that the public financing decision may boost fundraising for the final days of the quarter, he told me,

We will have an infusion — we don’t know exactly what the figure will be — but we will have about $9 million on hand, plus this match, we could conceivably get up to $20 million cash on hand to operate with in the last months of the campaign.

As the end of the fundraising quarter draws near, Boniors comment may illuminate a reason for the timing of the announcement: they expect that the news will actually increase the number of donations they receive before the end of the month.

Obviously, we spoke about more than just these figures, but you’ll have to wait until the full write-up goes up on Iowa Independent.