"Let's have a big round of applause for 'I can buy you Rick.'" (Joshua Lott/Reuters)
Now that Rick Santorum has announced his cash on hand as well as fundraising
totals for February, we know that his campaign and Super PAC has spent at least $19.6 million thus far. That figure doesn't include spending by his campaign itself during March, but it does include his
Super PAC spending, which accounted for $6.5 million of his total spending.
Mitt Romney, meanwhile, has spent at least $103.4 million on his campaign, $36.5 million of which came from his Super PAC. As with Santorum, that number does not reflect spending during March by his campaign.
If you assume both Romney and Santorum have maintained their February spending paces during March, then Romney's current spending total is roughly $111 million and Santorum's is $25 million. That gives Romney an estimated $86 million spending advantage over Santorum, leading his rival by a 4.5-to-1 ratio since the start of the campaign.
As Markos wrote yesterday, Romney's campaign is relying on big donors to fill its coffers. It's the same story with his Super PAC: One donor alone contributed $3 million, half of Romney's Super PAC fundraising for the entire month of February.