In changing sphere, Dean's Net fund-raising outdoes Cheney

Vice President Dick Cheney got up yesterday morning, boarded Air Force Two and flew to Columbia, S.C., where he rode in a motorcade to a private home, shook hands, and posed for pictures with 150 donors at a luncheon. There he raised $300,000 for the Bush-Cheney reelection committee before flying home.

Over four days ending last night, Howard Dean outdid the vice president -- without leaving his campaign headquarters in Burlington, Vt.

In a testament to the power of Internet fund-raising, and the intensity of the Democratic presidential contender's support, Dean raised $344,000 for his campaign by the time of the Cheney lunch. All Dean's staff did was tell their supporters about Cheney's event via the Internet and challenge them to surpass the vice president's total.

By 12:30 this morning, Dean's total stood at $507,150, with contributions from 9,500 people, the campaign said, adding that the counting was expected to continue overnight. The drive, which started late last Thursday, ended at midnight last night. For the Republican-held White House, it was more direct evidence of a fund-raising phenomenon that Dean's eight Democratic rivals witnessed last month, when the former Vermont governor posted the highest total of the group for the second quarter of the year, $7.6 million. In one day in late June, the campaign raised more than $800,000, much of it via the Internet. The latest cybertake had professionals shaking their heads.

''That amount of money raised in that amount of time for an event that wasn't even their own event strikes me as spectacular,'' said Richard Armstrong, a direct-mail specialist in Washington who wrote a book about politics in the electronic era titled, ''The Next Hurrah.''

By noon, when Cheney's lunch started, Dean's total stood at $344,428. The number of donors totaled 6,558 -- about 6,400 more than Cheney's.

Each of the vice president's donors gave $2,000, the maximum allowed for an individual during the primaries, but the average donation for Dean by that hour -- $52 -- meant his campaign could go back and seek additional money from most of the contributors as his primary campaign continues.