Obama camp wants $60 million by end of June

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(CNN) - He won’t face a Republican opponent for months, but President Obama is aiming to kick the campaign season off with a fundraising bang, asking his top donors to bring in $60 million by the end of June.

The request came in a presentation to heavyweight fundraisers Wednesday in Chicago, according to a source who has seen the presentation. The $60 million cash haul would go both to Obama’s reelection campaign and the Democratic National Committee, and is in line with reports that the Obama campaign is ultimately hoping to raise $1 billion during the upcoming campaign cycle.

June 30 marks the end of the second fundraising quarter: by way of comparison, the Obama campaign raised just over $30 million in the second quarter of 2007. But the eye-popping figure is approximately equal to what the Bush/Cheney campaign raised for its reelection effort in the second quarter of 2003.

Meanwhile, the reelection campaign continues to target small donors, sending out an e-mail solicitation earlier Thursday asking for as little as $5. Like in 2008, the campaign has pledged not to take money from lobbyists or PACs, pledging to do “this the right way.”