At one event last year, Barack Obama spoke to 10,000 people who bought ball caps, t-shirts, buttons and more, purchases his campaign then registered with the FEC as campaign donations, the New York Times' David Kirkpatrick, Mike McIntyre and Jeff Zeleny report. These people and others who've bought small paraphernalia count toward Obama's record 258,000 contributors this year.

Obama has "worked hard to cultivate a network of bundlers, who can solicit the checks from individual donors" who max out at $2,300, but his campaign has also used "novel tactics -- like counting sales of $5 speech tickets or $4.50 Obama key chains as individual contributions -- to pump up his numbers and transform grass-roots enthusiasm into more useful forms of support. No other campaign is known to have listed paraphernalia sales as donations."

However, Obama's mailing list exceeds the national list that Hillary Clinton accumulated through her Senate races and her husband's time in the White House. In further contrast, Obama raised about $11 million from donations of $200 or less, while Clinton raised $2.3 million from the same size donations. Obama led all presidential candidates in donations from ZIP codes that are 25 percent black or greater.

The Washington Post's Anne Kornblut and Perry Bacon, Jr. ask if there is a comparison between Obama and Howard Dean, believing he "must turn the intense devotion of his backers" into voters to win the primaries, "expanding his base of support beyond the narrow band of Democratic elites who backed Dean." These "latte liberals" voice strong opinions but don't win primaries. Obama is "more popular among men and independents, rather than with the women and working-class voters who generally drive the nominating process," though he's about tied with Clinton in black support.To help address his relative weakness, Obama is focusing on the economy and made changes to his style: a terser speaking style and smaller venues. Obama may visit Europe to bolster his foreign policy credentials.

Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty will endorse Obama today, reports the Chicago Sun-Times's Lynn Sweet. Meanwhile, Clinton has received two new endorsements: former Ambassador Joe Wilson and University of Nevada Chancellor Jim Rogers.

Clinton's biggest Iowa endorser, former Gov. Tom Vilsack, received $87,000 from her donors to help him pay off a personal debt to his campaign and other bills, reports the Los Angeles Times' Dan Morain.

John Edwards is in the news for money as well, or more precisely, other people's lack of it. NBC's Lauren Applebaum and Andy Merten report Edwards finished the first day of his poverty tour in New Orleans, calling for rebuilding the city's infrastructure, ensuring public safety from levees and lawbreakers and creating jobs. The Politico's Mike Allen reports Edwards wants to increasing busing budgets, strengthen inner-city schools and give more money to suburban schools to increase enrollment. These efforts are aimed at expanding education availability and increasing race and class integration.

On the Republican side, there's bad news from inside McCain's campaign and good news from two early states. Yesterday, three members of McCain's national press operation and one from his Iowa shop bailed out.

Meanwhile, Campaigns & Elections' John Boyanoski reports McCain outraised all presidential candidates in South Carolina, grossing $171,000 and raising $50,000 more than he did in Q1. Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani placed second and third, respectively, raising less than they did in Q1. Obama topped the Democratic field with the largest increase of any candidate, ending at $156,838. In contrast, Clinton and Edwards raised less than $43,000.

McCain also led in Nevada, raising $160,000, followed by Bill Richardson in second with $118,000 and Romney in third with $112,000, down from $400,000 in Q1. Giuliani dropped from $526,000 in Q1 to $68,000 in Q2. Clinton also dropped from $317,000 to $83,000.

Finally, Fred Thompson hasn't filed with the FEC because he would lose money from his role on NBC's "Law and Order" and face increased pressure to officially announce his campaign, writes Marc Ambinder. Instead, Thompson will almost certainly file a "schedule of contributions and expenditures" with the IRS by July 31 or else have 35 percent of his contributions taxed.

Get these and today's other election stories at RCP's Politics and Elections page.