Obama, allies steal financial win over Romney in August

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic President Barack Obama and his allies scored a financial victory in August over Republican challenger Mitt Romney and his backers as they hit snags in the money race, financial disclosures showed Thursday.

The key pro-Obama outside spending group in a rare show of strength raised more money last month than the pro-Romney "super" political action committee (PAC) while Romney continued to raise more cash for the Republican National Committee than his own campaign, which campaign finance analysts say limits the scope of the funds' use.

With the November 6 election looming, the candidates' ability to sustain large grassroots operations and have flexibility for rapid response through TV advertising may prove crucial in the tight race.

Romney has since April relied on outside backers for more than half of his ads, an academic study found last week -- far more than Obama, whose campaign has been spending at a rapid clip on its vast infrastructure and ad buys.

But in August, Romney's key Super PAC backer -- Restore Our Future -- plowed through $21.2 million as its fundraising declined for the second month, disclosures filed with the Federal Election Commission showed.

That left the group with just $7.4 million in cash on hand, raising questions about how much of an ad-buying force it will be in the home stretch.

Bringing in $7 million in August, Restore Our Future -- whose attack ads on Romney's foes were key to his clinching the Republican nomination -- lagged the pro-Obama Priorities USA Action, which has long struggled to attract Democratic donors who generally disdain the Super PACs' unlimited fundraising.

The pro-Obama Super PAC marked its best fundraising month with a $10.1 million haul and had $4.8 million in the bank.

OBAMA'S ADVANTAGE

Restore Our Future, which declined to comment, kicked up its spending in August to try to counter Obama's well-funded campaign, whose ads dominated the airwaves in many parts of the country last month.

Romney himself raised $66.1 million in August, according to FEC filings. But the campaign spent $61.2 million and could not dip into a large chunk of its cash because a provision in U.S. campaign law walled it off until after his official nomination at the Republican convention in Tampa in late August.

In fact, because of the law, Romney wound up stretched for cash at the end of August and had to take out a $20 million loan to make it to the general election period.

Obama's campaign also continued to invest its cash at a fast pace in August -- spending $83.2 million and raising $84.2 million -- but it emerged with more in its own coffers than the Romney campaign.

The Romney campaign finished August with $50.4 million in cash on hand, while Obama's campaign had $88.8 million -- even though the Republican National Committee trounced the Democratic National Committee, FEC filings showed.

The DNC had just $7.1 million in the bank, compared with the RNC's nearly eight-fold increase in cash on hand to $76.7 million.

But election finance analysts say campaigns are the ones holding the most flexible cash, because it allows for spur-of-the-moment investments, for example, to instantly rebut the opponent's latest attack.

Parties, while vowing to spend every dime on their presidential candidate, do provide key support when it comes to mobilizing voters and grass-roots outreach but this year they have a $21.7 million cap on how much they can coordinate with campaigns. That limits, most importantly, their capacity for advertising, crucial way to reach voters.

Overall, Romney, RNC and the joint fund were $46.5 million ahead of Obama, DNC and their joint fund in cash on hand at the end of August, according to news releases and disclosures.

In total fundraising, the president and the DNC remained ahead, having raised a total of about $742 million this campaign season, compared with roughly $630 million raised by Romney for his campaign and the Republican Party, also according to news releases and FEC disclosures.

CROSSROADS

Romney stands to benefit from other independent groups that can raise and spend unlimited amounts. One is American Crossroads, a Super PAC and nonprofit co-founded by former George W. Bush aide Karl Rove.

In August, the group raised $9.4 million and had $32 million left in cash on hand, FEC filings showed.

Romney also benefits from two non-disclosing tax-exempt advocacy groups American Crossroads' sister group Crossroads GPS and Americans for Prosperity, funded by billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch.

Even so, the August totals - along with the independent Republican groups turning their focus to races for the U.S. Senate and House - could reflect some of the discontent that many conservatives feel toward Romney's campaign, which trails Obama's nationwide and in several of the politically divided "swing" states that will decide the election.

The academic Wesleyan Media Project last week found that 54 percent of pro-Romney or anti-Obama ads run between late April and early September came from independent groups.

Democratic groups, generally unable to match Republican groups' fundraising prowess this year, funded just 9 percent of ads benefiting Obama during that time.

(Additional reporting by Patrick Temple-West; Editing by David Lindsey and Lisa Shumaker)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/pro-romney-super-pac-plowed-cash-war-chest-023242459.html

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