Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton each claim to have raised close to $7 million online since Super Tuesday, touching off a fundraising dash as they scramble to break the deadlock that emerged from the coast-to-coast primary contest.

The windfall of cash was a relief for Clinton especially, who acknowledged Wednesday she loaned her campaign $5 million late last month, and whose staffers had agreed to work without pay.

That wasn't necessary with the sudden influx of money.

National campaign chairman Terry McAuliffe, in a conference call with 300 Clinton fundraisers nationwide, assured them: "All staff 100 percent paid. Not an issue."

Whatever the current balance in the money chase, both candidates have been raising and spending incredible sums.

Each raised $100 million last year and sped through at least $80 million.

Any financial crunch for Clinton would be largely due to lopsided fundraising in January, when Obama pulled in $32 million to her $13.5 million.

A fund-meter on Obama's Web site this afternoon claimed the campaign raised close to $7.6 million since polls closed Tuesday. The Illinois senator announced raising the first $3 million late Wednesday night, after press reports broke about Clinton's $5 million loan.

In an e-mail appeal to donors, Obama's campaign called on supporters to match that $5 million, saying Clinton's loan is "a dramatic move, and a clear acknowledgement that our campaign has the momentum."

Countering that, Clinton's campaign also announced raising $3 million in less than 24 hours, and then doubled their goal to shoot for $6 million in 72 hours. The campaign reported Thursday afternoon that it reached $6.4 million, from more than 35,000 online contributors.

The once indestructible Clinton fundraising machine, however, has been threatened by financial news from the Obama camp.

Buoyed by strong fundraising and a nomination calendar in February that plays to his strengths, Obama plans a campaign blitz through a series of states holding contests this weekend and will compete to win primaries in the Mid-Atlantic next week and Hawaii and Wisconsin the following week.

The 22-state blitz of primaries and caucuses Tuesday ended in what amounted to a draw. Obama won 13 states and Clinton won eight (and one state is still undecided), but Clinton's victories generally came in more delegate-rich states like New York and California. Delegates are still being tallied, but the final counts are likely to put them neck-and-neck.

With less money to spend and less confident of her prospects in the February contests, Clinton will instead concentrate on Ohio and Texas, large states with primaries March 4 and where polling shows her with a significant lead. She even is looking ahead to Pennsylvania's primary April 22, believing a largely elderly population there will favor the former first lady.

Obama campaigned in New Orleans on Thursday, offering himself as the best candidate to restore competence to the White House and rebuild trust broken by the government's botched response to Hurricane Katrina.

Speaking at Tulane University ahead of Saturday's Louisiana primary, the Illinois senator accused Bush of failing to do enough to help the Gulf Coast recover from the devastating storm of August 2005. He proposed a multifaceted program for the area, but did not indicate its total cost or how he would pay for it.

"When I am president," Obama told about 4,000 people in Tulane's basketball arena, "we will finish building a system of levees that can withstand a 100-year storm by 2011, with the goal of expanding that protection to defend against a Category 5 storm."

In a possible sign of Clinton's increasing concern about Obama's growing strength, Clinton campaign manager Patti Solis Doyle sent a letter Thursday to Obama campaign manager David Plouffe seeking five debates between the two candidates before March 4.

"I'm sure we can find a suitable place to meet on the campaign trail," Solis wrote. "There's too much at stake, and the issues facing the country are too grave to deny voters the opportunity to see the candidates up close."

Obama rejected a debate proposed as soon as this Sunday to be broadcast on ABC, but his campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Thursday, "there will definitely be more debates, we just haven't set a schedule yet."

"We'll have some debates," Obama promised. But first, he said, "I've got to spend time with voters." Clinton, he argued, is better-known to voters in states coming up on the primary calendar.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.