The big political story is that presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney has nearly matched Barack Obama in fund raising for April. Coming on the heels of some polls that suggest Barack Obama’s campaign faces an ever tougher fight than some Democrats had predicted, and the belief that PACS supporting Romney and the Republicans can dwarf Democratic PACs, it adds confirmation to Democratic political maven James Carville’s call for Democrats to “wake up” and realize they could lose…bigtime.
More and more American politics has become The Battle of and for the Big Bucks:
Mitt Romney almost matched President Obama in fund-raising during April after securing his party’s presidential nomination and joining forces with the Republican National Committee, the campaign will announce on Thursday.
Mr. Romney and the R.N.C. raised $40.1 million in April, just shy of the $43.6 million that Mr. Obama and the Democratic National Committee raised for the month.
The contributions on behalf of Mr. Romney represent a huge jump over the $12.6 million that his campaign raised in March. The increase was made possible by donors coalescing around Mr. Romney as the nominee and the larger donations that can be directed to the party, campaign officials said.
“Voters are tired of President Obama’s broken promises,” said Reince Priebus, the chairman of the R.N.C. in a statement. “Mitt Romney has the record and plan to turn our country around – that is why he is receiving such enthusiastic support from voters across the country.”
Aides to Mr. Romney noted that the total might have been even higher if the joint fund-raising effort — known as the “Victory” campaign — had begun sooner. The campaign and the R.N.C. announced they were joining forces on April 4 but did not hold the first combined event until April 14, nearly halfway through the month.
Mr. Romney had lost ground in the money wars to Mr. Obama during the first quarter of 2012 as he battled with his Republican rivals for the nomination. As of the end of March, Mr. Obama had 10 times the cash on hand as Mr. Romney.
But the surge in fund-raising for Mr. Romney may begin to even the scales, at least as far as the campaigns and their official party support is concerned. Democrats still fear that outside groups like “super PACs” and other organizations will tip the financial balance in Mr. Romney’s favor.
First Read puts this in context: it is very good news for the GOP.
A new poll out of Wisconsin and fresh fundraising numbers show that Mitt Romney is beginning to close the gap in a hurry after he wrapped up the GOP nomination a month ago. First, a Marquette Law School poll (conducted May 9-12) shows that President Obama and Romney are tied at 46% among likely voters; back in April, Obama led by four points in this survey. (The poll also shows Scott Walker with a six-point lead over Tom Barrett in the June 5 Wisconsin recall.) Romney needs industrial Midwestern states in play. His path to 270 counts on winning one or more of WI/OH/PA/MI. In addition, the Romney camp is announcing that it and the RNC raised $40.1 million in April, almost equaling the $43.6 million Team Obama and the DNC hauled in last month. What’s more, the Romney folks are reporting that they have more than $60 million in the bank. We always assumed this race would tighten after Romney became the presumptive nominee. But how quickly it has occurred — especially on the fundraising front — is very good news for the GOP. One thing worth noting: The RNC is refusing to comment until the FEC report is filed whether their $20 million-plus transfer is reflected in the new cash-on-hand number for Romney. That probably means yes.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.