The New York Times reports that Romney Gains Huge Cash Advantage Over Obama bringing their total cash on hand to $186 million, compared to $124 million for President Obama. Romney has gained this advantage by raising more and spending less than the Democrats in July. Governor Romney has been able to spend much less than President Obama on advertising because tax-exempt Super-Pacs, are taking up the slack.
Mr. Obama’s campaign and the Democratic National Committee spent $91 million in July, significantly more than the $75 million the Democrats raised, underscoring the investments Mr. Obama made in technology and field staff as well as nearly $40 million his campaign spent on advertising that month. While Mr. Romney continued to husband his resources for the fall — he spent less than half of what Mr. Obama did on advertising — conservative “super PACs” and other outside groups stepped into the breach, spending millions of dollars on ads attacking Mr. Obama.
Mr. Obama and the Democrats raised a combined $75 million during July, according to Federal Election Commission reports filed Monday, compared with $101 million for Mr. Romney and the Republicans. The Democrats had about $124 million in cash on hand, most of it in Mr. Obama’s campaign account, while the Republicans had $186 million. ...
But Mr. Romney’s extraordinary two-month run raising money — his team has pulled more than $200 million in June and July — makes it virtually certain that Mr. Obama will not leave the Democratic convention next month with the cash advantage he had four years ago, when he heavily outspent the Republican candidate, John McCain, on his way to victory in November. The July totals do not include what Romney campaign officials said was a boost in both small online donations and large checks after the announcement this month of Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin as Mr. Romney’s running mate.
These total do not include Super-Pac and tax-exempt groups where the GOP also spend more on advertising than Democrats. Also, note that these total were taken before the reported surge in Republican donations after the Paul Ryan V.P. announcement.
The NYT also reports that Governor Romney is catching up in spending on local campaign office spending and infrastructure in swing states such as Florida, Wisconsin, Colorado, Iowa, and others.
I encourage all Democrats to open up our wallets and contribute now, so we can withstand what promises to be a barrage of pro-Romney advertising spending through-out the fall.
http://www.barackobama.com/
9:58 PM PT: Charcharczar points out that this article combines the fund raising of the campaigns with the DNC, and RNC, which I find confirmation of in the WSJ intro in the non-subscriber area.
Charcharczar asserts that if the DNC, and RNC funds are taken out, President Obama raised more funds than Romney during this period. I haven't found confirmation of this, but will look in the morning, I have to go to bed now.