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McCain works to refill campaign coffers

  • Story Highlights
  • Sen. John McCain heading to St. Louis, Missouri, for a fundraising Monday
  • Both Clinton and Obama have raised much more money than McCain
  • McCain working to keep in front of voters as Democrats continue to battle
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(CNN) -- Sen. John McCain worked to replenish his campaign coffers Monday, attempting to narrow the fundraising advantage Democrats are expected to have going into the general election.

The Arizona Republican planned to head to St. Louis, Missouri, to raise funds, his main concern now that he has won enough delegates to secure the Republican presidential nomination. McCain went over the top last week when he won the Texas primary.

McCain returns to the campaign trail after spending the weekend in Arizona. While home, McCain and his wife, Cindy, attended a Phoenix Sun's basketball game.

As the presumptive Republican nominee turns his attention to the general election, there are fears McCain may be greatly outspent by the eventual Democratic nominee.

The two remaining competing for the Democratic nomination, Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, have vastly out raised McCain this primary season.

By the end of February, Obama had raised over $195 million, and Clinton had raised $173 million. In comparison, McCain raised only nearly $55 million by the end of January.

Besides raising funds, McCain can use the spring to consolidate conservative support and keep his name in front of the voters as the Democratic nominating contest continues, said Robert Traynham, a former political adviser to one of McCain's former rivals for the GOP nomination, Fred Thompson.

"The McCain folks know that and know they have to remain relevant when the Democrats literally duke it out," Traynham said.

McCain may also be able to use this time to get a jump start on the Democrats in the battleground states that could be critical this fall, said Mary Francis Berry, an American history and policy professor at the University of Pennsylvania who has worked in Democratic administrations.

In California, McCain may be able to able to get a jump on Democrats, Berry suggested, because he supported comprehensive immigration reform in the Senate, a position that angered many conservatives in his own party.

"I think that raising money is important -- making speeches, talking," Berry said. "But he has an opportunity here to try to go out and make hay quietly with Latinos because of his leadership on immigration." E-mail to a friend E-mail to a friend

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