(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-02-01 09:47

LOS ANGELES -- Barack Obama raised a staggering $32 million in January, cash aplenty to advertise all through the expensive Super Tuesday states and beyond. He was also running ads in more states than rival Hillary Rodham Clinton as the last two Democrats standing braced for Thursday night's face-to-face debate in California.

Supporters of Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., hold a banner in front of the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles before a Democratic debate Thursday, Jan. 31, 2008. [Agencies]

Obama's January haul was the most raised in one month by any candidate in the 2008 campaign.

The Illinois senator is advertising in 20 of the 22 states in play in the busiest day of the primary season -- including California, the biggest delegate prize -- and plans to begin running ads in seven more states that hold primaries or caucuses later in February. Clinton is advertising in 12 Super Tuesday states, including her home state of New York.

The Clinton campaign released two new 30-second ads it will run in those states emphasizing the senator's tactics for dealing with a flagging economy. One features a plunging skydiver as an announcer proclaims "our economy could be heading into free fall." The other shows her proclaiming a "can-do spirit" and vowing to "turn our economy around and build a new age of prosperity."

Both ads suggest she is the most qualified to tackle economic challenges.

Barack and Clinton were facing off in Los Angeles' Kodak Theater, home to the Academy Awards, in the first Democratic debate of the season to feature only two candidates. Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards bowed out Wednesday without endorsing either of his former rivals.

The stakes are high, and Clinton and Obama have been clashing in increasingly acrimonious terms.

Obama would become the first black president if nominated and elected; Clinton could be the first woman president.

The battles for both the Democratic and Republican nominations have focused more and more on the economy, which polls suggest now rivals the war in Iraq as the issue concerning most Americans.

Meanwhile, the New York City-based Transport Workers Union is likely to endorse Obama on Friday, a union source said on condition of anonymity. The 200,000-member unit originally endorsed Edwards. The Transport Workers would be the first member of the AFL-CIO, the nation's largest labor federation, to endorse Obama.

Obama also got support from the California-based United Healthcare Workers, which is affilated with the Service Employees International Union. "We feel Obama is the best candidate for working families," said Sal Rosselli, president of the 150,000-member union that describes itself as the largest and most powerful healthcare union west of the Mississippi.

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