McCain pockets $7M since Palin choice

WASHINGTON, Aug. 31 (UPI) -- Campaigners for likely Republican U.S. presidential nominee John McCain say he has raised $7 million in donations since naming Sarah Palin his running mate.

Much of the cash may be coming from social conservative backers who were going to sit out the election but who approve of the Alaska governor's anti-abortion and gun control policies, The Washington Post reported Sunday, quoting unnamed campaign aides.

The contributions come at a crucial time for McCain, a U.S. senator from Arizona who named Palin his vice presidential choice Friday. After the accepts the GOP nomination Thursday in St. Paul, Minn., he will no longer be permitted to raise private money for his campaign because he has accepted public financing, the newspaper said.

But McCain will be free to raise money for the Republican National Committee, and he has signed on to host four RNC fundraising events across the country in the coming weeks. The aides said Palin would be sent out to headline more than a dozen such party fundraisers, the Post reported.