Obama fundraising moves to transition

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18 (UPI) -- President-elect Barack Obama, after raising record sums for his presidential campaign, must now begin raising money for his transition and inauguration.

CNN reported Tuesday there is about $9.74 million of taxpayer funds available to pay for the transition, but most experts agree that's not enough. To make up the difference, past presidents have turned to fundraising from the public and corporate donations.

For its part, Obama's transition team is working to keep lobbyists out of his transition and forgo corporate cash.

President George W. Bush raised a record $42.8 million for his second inauguration. Public Citizen said more than 90 percent of donations to his second inauguration were from executives or corporations.

Bush limited corporate donations to $250,000 each. CNN said Obama could decide to accept corporate donations for the inauguration, but impose tighter limits on corporate giving, an expert says.

"I think past presidents have had to raise lots of private money to do these things. And I think he's actually got a good resource base of donors that are willing and probably will give money for both the transition effort, but also the inaugural campaign as well," said David Lewis, a professor of political science at Vanderbilt University.