In July, the financial fortunes of the presidential candidates continued along their new trajectories, with Republican Mitt Romney’s money-raising efforts outpacing President Obama once again.
Indeed, groups supporting Romney raised one-third more than Obama’s re-election effort for the month.
Romney, the all-but-official Republican nominee, actually collected less in July than he had in June, but only slightly. His campaign announced Monday that its overall take for July was $101.3 million.
That’s a total from Romney For President, the Republican National Committee and a joint fundraising committee called Romney Victory Inc.
The $101.3 million compares to $75 million for Obama’s re-election effort from a similar combination of individual and joint fundraising by committees for both the candidate and the party.
Political scientist Randy Adkins at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, says July may have still included Romney’s post-primary bounce.
“It could be that we’re seeing people who originally donated to Newt Gingrich or to Rick Santorum or other candidates in the race are now able to donate to Romney,” he says.
Romney’s campaign says donors of $250 or less made 94 percent of the contributions.
For Obama, the small-donor percentage was even higher — 98 percent.
Adkins says that’s good news for both candidates:
“A lot of these people will be new donors to the campaign. They could continue to donate.”
The Obama campaign did not disclose its cash-on-hand. That number is likely to be substantially less than the $186 million announced by Romney’s staff.
The president’s strategists have spent unprecedented amounts on ground-organizing in battleground states.
And they’ve financed a massive TV campaign, although that is being outpaced by even more ads from the Romney campaign, a pro-Romney superPAC and outside groups.
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