Clinton lends campaign $6.4M for election battle

WASHINGTON -- Hillary Rodham Clinton lent her campaign $6.4 million in the last month, a campaign aide said Wednesday, and she and Barack Obama plunged back into the still-unresolved battle for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Obama closed in on a history-making presidential nomination Tuesday — sweeping the North Carolina primary and holding Clinton to a narrow victory in Indiana that raised questions about the future of her campaign. He planned to be off the campaign trail Wednesday, but Clinton scheduled a campaign appearance in Shepherdstown, W. Va. She also will campaign Thursday in the state, which holds its Democratic primary Tuesday.

Clinton's campaign moved quickly Wednesday to dispel any notion that her bid could be coming to an end.

On a conference call with reporters, Clinton campaign chief strategist Geoff Garin painted both primary results as good news for the New York senator.

"We're pleased with our result in Indiana," he said, because Clinton "came from behind to achieve a primary victory."

As for the loss in North Carolina, Garin said the results there "also in an important respect represent progress for us" because Clinton carried white voters in the state by "24 points."

Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson also told reporters Wednesday that the senator had lent her campaign another $6.4 million between mid-April and May 5. Her campaign reported raising $10 million online after her victory April 22 in Pennsylvania, but Obama has outspent Clinton in primary after primary, and has shown little difficulty raising large sums of money. He spent more than $7 million on advertising head of Tuesday's primaries in North Carolina and Indiana to her nearly $4 million.

Obama told reporters the campaign will continue to make the case to Democratic superdelegates that "Senator Clinton is a better match-up against John McCain than Barack Obama" in part because of her "proven ability" to win blue-collar votes.

But Obama continues to close in on the delegates needed to secure the Democratic nomination. According to estimates by the Associated Press, Obama was 184.5 delegates shy of the 2,025 needed to secure the Democratic nomination on Wednesday.