Mitt Romney’s joint fund-raising committee hauled in more than $100 million in June, according to a report by Politico, an impressive encore to May, when the presumptive Republican presidential nominee outraised President Obama for the first time.
Romney’s latest one-month total is his best by far, outpacing the $76.8 million he raised a month earlier.
It also marks only the second time a presidential candidate has raised more than $100 million in a single month. Obama’s joint fund-raising committee raised $150 million in September 2008.
Rumors of Romney’s big month had swirled for a couple of weeks, sounding alarms in the Obama camp.
In an e-mail to supporters last week, Obama worried that he could be the first incumbent president to be outspent in his bid for reelection.
“I’m not just talking about the super PACs and anonymous outside groups — I’m talking about the Romney campaign itself,” Obama wrote in the e-mail.
“Those outside groups just add even more to the underlying problem. We can be outspent and still win — but we can’t be outspent 10-to-1 and still win.”
The Romney campaign has said that last week’s Supreme Court ruling that upheld Obama’s health care law has energized Republicans — and opened their wallets.
Last Friday, only a day after the decision, the campaign said an additional $4.6 million had poured in.
CALLUM BORCHERS
Pro-Romney super PAC makes big Olympics ad buy
Restore Our Future, a top super PAC backing Mitt Romney’s presidential candidacy, plans to spend $7.2 million on advertisements during the upcoming London Olympics, according to reports.
The major ad push will more than counter the $6.5 million of Olympic air time purchased by President Obama’s reelection campaign.
And it is an opportunity to link Romney to one of his most universally heralded achievements — his management of the Salt Lake City Olympics 10 years ago.
Restore Our Future’s ad buy was reported Thursday morning by Politico and CNN. The content of the ads is unknown, but they will run between July 31 and Aug. 9 in 11 swing states: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wisconsin.
The ad campaign is the latest signal that Restore Our Future is ramping up its general election efforts.
Only two weeks ago, the group announced a $7.6 million buy in nine swing states.
Even before the recent splurges, Restore Our Future had spent $53.9 million through the end of May, according to campaign finance data maintained by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
The group’s $61.5 million raised was more than quadruple the total collected by Priorities USA Action, the leading super PAC supporting Obama.
The Globe reported Thursday that on the whole, super PACs supporting Republicans have outraised those backing Democrats by a 3-to-1 ratio: $158 million to $47 million.
Super PACs are independent groups that can accept uncapped donations from individuals, corporations, and labor unions but cannot coordinate spending with candidates’ official campaigns.
CALLUM BORCHERS
A female running mate possible, Ann Romney says
Ann Romney said her husband, presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, is considering a female running mate and she is excited about the prospect of a woman on the GOP ticket.
“We’ve been looking at that, and I’d love that option as well,” Ann Romney said in a CBS News interview with her husband at their lakefront
vacation home in Wolfeboro, N.H.
The Romneys discussed the vice presidential selection process on the Fourth of July, the same day that they marched in Wolfeboro’s Independence Day parade with New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte, a rumored contender.
Ann Romney would not say whether she has a favorite but said there are several people whom she “really like[s] a lot.”
After trailing President Obama among female voters, Romney nudged ahead in May, according to a CBS News/New York Times poll that gave him a 2-point edge among women.
CALLUM BORCHERS