TPM2012

Romney Raises $106 Million In June But Claims Spending Disadvantage

Pema Levy July 9, 2012, 8:09 AM

The Romney campaign officially released its June fundraising numbers Monday, announcing an impressive $106.1 million haul. But, the campaign doesn’t want to give up their underdog status, arguing that despite the numbers, they remain at a spending disadvantage against President Obama.

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Within the $106.1 million figure — which is the combined fundraising total of Romney for President, the Romney Victory fund and the RNC — 94 percent of those donations were $250 or less. However, those small donations account for only $22.3 million of the total. They have $160 million cash on hand.

The big numbers, the campaign says, are a sign that Americans want a change. “This month’s fundraising is a statement from voters that they want a change of direction in Washington,” Romney Victory National Finance Chairman Spencer Zwick said in a statement.

However, while the Romney campaign wants to play up their impressive numbers, they also want stress that they remain the underdog, even when it comes to money.

In a memo released early Monday, the Romney campaign argued that the Obama campaign began the de facto general election cycle in April with a massive cash advantage of $100 million that lasted through the month of May. Moreover, the memo states that since Mitt Romney became the presumptive nominee, the the Obama campaign outspent the Romney campaign by nearly 3 to 1 in television advertising, $46.2 million to $17 million. The campaign also notes that they are limited to spending primary campaign money until after Romney becomes the official nominee at the end of August while Obama faces no such spending limitations.

Of course, the Romney campaign’s numbers do not take into account the massive amount of GOP-allied outside groups that are spending millions on advertising and aim to spend upwards of $1 billion by November. The Obama campaign has not yet released its June fundraising numbers.

Pema Levy

Pema Levy is a News Writer at TPM covering the 2012 election. Before coming to TPM, Pema was an assistant editor at The American Prospect where she wrote about politics and the economy.