Once again Mitt Romney thrashed President Obama in the fundraising department, collecting $101.3 million to about $75 million for the president last month.
Obama increased his fundraising total over June by $4 million, while Romney’s number actually went down compared to June. But while Obama continues to collect more cash each month, he has been unable to keep pace with Romney’s eye-popping numbers.
Romney raised $106 million in June—$5 million more than July, so his haul actually went down last month. But Obama’s numbers were $71 million in June and $75 million for July, putting him far behind the GOP challenger.
“Every bit helps,” the campaign tweeted in announcing Obama’s total, noting that 98 percent of the contributions were under $250.
In announcing its numbers by Twitter on Monday morning, the Obama campaign was signaling how much the campaign apparatus has changed in such a short time. In a recognition of that change, the campaigns rarely talk any more to the political reporters following them around because they don’t have to rely on the reporters as filters now. They can go directly to the public. And as for the candidates themselves, they rarely answer reporter questions.
Romney reported that there was a total of $185.9 million in cash reserves on hand for his campaign at the end of July, an accumulation of money from his campaign, the Republican National Committee and state parties.
Campaign officials once again used the big number as an indication of Romney’s popularity among voters.
“Once again, we see that for many people this is more than a campaign, it is a cause,” Romney finance chairman Spencer Zwick and RNC chairman Reince Priebus said in a joint statement.
A portion of the $185.9 million in cash reserves can’t be used until the general election, after Romney is formally nominated at his party’s convention at the end of August in Tampa. But Romney did not reveal how much that amount is.
According to the Times, Obama’s advisers have all but conceded the money race to Romney. The emails from the campaign that get sent out to donors have taken on more urgency in the last few weeks, warning of the financial advantage that the Republicans will hold going into the final weeks of the presidential campaign.
Incumbents are rarely beaten in the fundraising department, but Romney’s edge is likely an indication of how much more he is favored by the wealthy donors willing to hand over huge sums to the candidate of their choice. There was a time (just four years ago) when a candidate raising $75 million in one month for a campaign was unthinkable. Now shockingly it’s seen as a sign of a presidential candidate looking like a loser.
