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It’s the $1 billion campaign vs. the $1 billion campaign — and neither side has a clear edge in the money race headed down the home stretch.
Both President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney’s campaign, party committees and super PAC allies are all-but assured of raising $1 billion on each side of the campaign ledger by Election Day.
Continue ReadingObama’s side has already pulled in $969 million, while Team Romney’s raised $919 million, according to a POLITICO analysis of Federal Election Commission data.
Yet, while Obama’s side has outraised Romney, it’s the Republican and his allies who came into October with a $43 million cash lead on the strength of a somewhat risky big-money hoarding strategy.
Team Romney was criticized for sitting on reserves over the summer while the Obama camp flooded the airwaves with attack ads, but Romney’s October ad spending binge seems to have come at an optimal time. The GOP nominee surged on the strength of a strong performance in the first debate, and polls indicated that he closed the gap with Obama as voters gave him another look.
Fueled by big donors, Romney’s campaign, combined with the super PAC and party committees boosting it had nearly $200 million in the bank at the end of last month, compared to $156 million for Obama’s campaign, and the super PAC and party committees dedicated to it, according to FEC reports filed this week.
And the Romney campaign has already raised more than $27 million online during the first two weeks of October — more than its raised online during any previous full month – a campaign official told POLITICO.
“Our campaign has the resources and organization to win,” said Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul.
Perhaps more important than the overall figures are the starkly divergent approaches illuminated in the FEC reports.
Obama’s campaign and the supportive Priorities USA Action super PAC went on an advertising-spending binge over the summer, hoping to define – and potentially put away – Romney, who was restocking his war chest and recouping after a bitter GOP primary. The pro-Romney Restore Our Future super PAC stepped in to fill some of the gap, depleting its bank account with a $30-million advertising push attacking Obama in August.
Romney’s campaign did not immediately pick up the slack early in September, however, instead waiting a few weeks for a sustained final push. Last month, it spent about $37 million on placed media and production, while the Obama campaign spent nearly $90 million on broadcast ad buys, production and advertising consulting.
But Romney’s late-breaking strategy may be hindered by another strategic difference: his side raised more of its cash through the Republican National Committee and the joint victory fund it set up with the Romney campaign. The RNC and Romney Victory can accept far larger checks than the $5,000-maximum campaign donation, but they also have to pay more for ads than the campaign, face restrictions on how much they can spend in direct coordination with it and – in the case of the joint fundraising committee – is obligated to disburse its cash amongst a host of far-flung component committees.
