Clinton Makes January Haul Public

It's hard to dispute that the fundraising story from January was Democrat Barack Obama's announcement last week that he had raised $32 million for the month -- a number that dwarfs any monthly total he or his rivals posted during the course of last year.

But the impressiveness of that number remained unclear because Obama's chief rival, Sen. Hillary Clinton, had not disclosed the amount she raised during a period where she and Obama repeatedly traded bursts of momentum.

Now, that mystery appears to be solved -- Clinton's campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe told NBC's Tim Russert this evening that her campaign raised "about 13 million, $13.5 million" last month.

By any normal measure, that would be an enormous haul for one month of fundraising. But stacked against Obama's unusual take, it has a more modest appearance.

McAuliffe, however, saw the fundraising picture in a different light.

"We won the fourth quarter and the third quarter. We actually raised more in '07 than Barack Obama did," McAuliffe told Russert, adding that the $13-plus million effort in January was something he was "very proud of."