WASHINGTON, Sept 10 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama's re-election campaign and the Democratic National Committee raised more than $114 million in August, filling up its coffers for an expensive fall against well-funded Republican rival Mitt Romney.
The Democratic incumbent broadened his donor base with more than 317,000 donors who had never given money before, said Obama campaign manager Jim Messina in a statement.
"The key to fighting back against the special interests writing limitless checks to support Mitt Romney is growing our donor base, and we did substantially in the month of August," Messina said. "That is a critical downpayment on the organization we are building across the country -- the largest grassroots campaign in history."
Monday, 10 September 2012
Obama's Fundraising Edges Out Romney In August
Romney Raises More Than $111 Million In August
BOSTON, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney raised more than $111 million in August, according to a statement issued by his campaign, maintaining an overwhelming cash advantage over President Barack Obama.
With less than two months to go before the Nov. 6 presidential election, Romney maintained his streak of fundraising dominance as his campaign, the Republican National Committee and state Republican parties reported that together they have about $168.5 million in cash at their disposal.
While Obama shattered every fundraising record in 2008 after becoming the first presidential candidate to opt out of a federal matching funds system, Romney has significantly outpaced the president in his bid for the White House this year.
After raising $101 million in July, Romney and the joint Victory Fund he shares with the Republican National Committee already enjoyed a $60 million cash-on-hand advantage over Obama.
The president's campaign has also burned through money faster than the Republican candidate, spending $58.5 million in July, with about two-thirds of that going to advertising.
Republicans view the combination of Obama's high cash burn rate and polls that show a tight race as evidence that they have withstood the advertising onslaught Obama's campaign launched early in the year.
"This race is a dead heat, even after they have spent over $100 million attacking Mitt Romney with negative ads," one senior Romney adviser said Sunday.
Romney is also now free to spend the millions of dollars he raised during his primary campaign.
Legally, Romney was barred from spending money he raised before he formally accepted the Republican nomination, which he did in Tampa more than a week ago.
The day after Obama accepted his party's nomination for president at the Democratic convention in North Carolina, the Romney campaign demonstrated it was ready to start spending some of that money in a homestretch assault on Obama.
Republicans seized on a disappointing jobs report on Friday morning, announcing they bought ad time in the key swing states Obama won in 2008 but are now in play.
Romney, on the air in the key states of Iowa, Virginia, Colorado, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio and North Carolina, was set to expand his advertising to Wisconsin on Monday.
"What we very deliberately did, we held our powder and we knew these jobs numbers were going to be a big moment," said one Romney adviser. "And we loaded up to come back on Friday, and we've gone up in a big way."
While Romney spent much of the summer fundraising, senior adviser Kevin Madden indicated that the Republican candidate would shift his focus to spending time with voters down the homestretch.
"We'll continue to do some fundraising throughout this month, but I think we're in that critical phase where we're trying to put our emphasis on voter contact and having the governor do more retail campaigning," Madden said.
Fired Up Obama Fundraising Tops Romney In August
WASHINGTON -- The reelection campaign of Barack Obama is back in the lead on the fundraising front after raising $114 million in August. The total, which is a combination of funds raised by the campaign, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Obama's victory committee, exceeds the $111.6 million the Romney campaign said that they raised in combination with the Republican National Committee (RNC) and Romney Victory for the same time period. This marks the first time since the Romney campaign and the RNC started raising money together that the Obama team has beaten them in monthly fundraising.
"The key to fighting back against the special interests writing limitless checks to support Mitt Romney is growing our donor base, and we did substantially in the month of August," Obama campaign manager Jim Messina said in a statement. "Fueled by contributions from more than 1.1 million Americans donating an average of $58 -- more than 317,000 who had never contributed to the campaign before -- we raised a total of more than $114 million. That is a critical downpayment on the organization we are building across the country -- the largest grassroots campaign in history."
The fundraising jump could help to put to rest a discussion that has occurred throughout the campaign about how the president is falling short in his fundraising, with the Romney camp's recent heavy fundraising seen as the latest evidence. The stated concern is that Obama is not meeting the fundraising record set in his first run for office in 2008 -- or the $1 billion campaign that officials in, or close to, his campaign allegedly once predicted.
The problem with these assertions -- which have circulated through blogs and news sites -- is that they've been wrong throughout the entire campaign. There is a chance that Obama will match the record $750 million that he raised for his campaign committee in 2008. That depends on the amounts the campaign raises in September and October. (It also depends on the breakdown of the $114 million raised in August and how much is for the campaign itself.)
One thing that is certain, Romney's campaign committee will not come close to reaching $750 in campaign receipts -- assuring that he will not be the "best-funded candidate ever." (Romney would have to raise $500 million for his campaign from August through October, or $200 million more than Obama raised during the same time in 2008.)
In fact, no matter how you slice the funds raised by the two candidates, Obama remains the leader, although Romney made up a lot of ground over the summer. Obama is way ahead when we just consider funds raised by the candidate's campaign committees and significantly leads when including the party committees. The most generous comparison, and the one that includes the just released, although not officially reported, August numbers shows that Obama, the DNC and his two victory committees have raised $689 million since April 2011, while Romney, the RNC and his victory committee have raised $613 million.
While each fundraising month is important, September will be the key month to watch in the post-public financing world. In 2008, Obama raised a record $150 million, for his campaign alone, and $192 million, when including funds raised by the DNC. Can either Obama or Romney match that amount?
The only indicator currently available is a push by the Obama campaign to get 600,000 grassroots donations during the Democratic National Convention week. By the end of Friday, at midnight, the campaign had received 700,000 donations. If those donations come in at the average $58 amount that the campaign has consistently raised then, in one week, they would have raised $40 million, solely from contributions received online.
On Romney's side, the August numbers could be seen as a let down. Raising $111.6 million is impressive, but it isn't much higher than his previous two months despite August including big events like his choice of Rep. Paul Ryan as his running mate and the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. These events should help with fundraising, but they appear to have had minimal impact in August.