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Obama campaign burns through more money than it generated

By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
August 22nd, 2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)

"Team Romney," the political camp bound and determined to elect Republican Mitt Romney to the presidency in 2012 has a lot to smile about this month. After a highly active month of July both at Team Romney and the committee to re-elect President Obama, the Romney camp has $186 million. Team Obama currently only has $127 million in its coffers, effectively burning through more money than it generated.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - According to campaign finance reports filed this week with the Federal Election Commission, the cash chasm between the opposing camps reveals that the Romney camp has outraised Obama for the third month in a row. Massive expenditures by the president's reelection campaign has been spent on ads criticizing Romney's tax plan as favoring the rich and linking him to his private equity firm's investments in companies that outsourced jobs.

Three short months away from Election Day finds the Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee already spending a half a billion dollars this cycle. In contrast, Romney and his affiliated GOP committees had spent about $350 million through the end of July.

Romney has had the advantage of being flanked by an array of deep-pocketed "super PACs" and nonprofit advocacy groups that are pumping tens of millions of dollars into the race on his behalf.

Money comes and goes as illustrated by the Obama campaign, as it raced through nearly $59 million last month, about the same as it spent in June, while raising $49 million.

The Obama camp spent nearly $39 million on television spots in July through GMMB, a Washington advertising and media placement firm, and $8.6 million on digital marketing through Bully Pulpit Interactive while another $4.3 million went to pay hundreds of campaign staffers.

The Romney campaign stayed in the black, raising $40 million while spending just under $33 million in July. Although the GOP candidate was outgunned on television by Obama, the pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future helped make up the difference, spending more than $8 million on ads touting his candidacy.

After raising a record $20.6 million in June with the help of mega-donor Sheldon Adelson, Restore Our Future brought in $7.4 million in contributions last month. The biggest donor to the Romney camp has been Houston home builder Bob Perry, who donated $2 million, bringing his total donations to the super PAC to $8 million.

The Renco Group, the holding company of billionaire GOP donor Ira Rennert, chipped in $1 million while he Larry H. Miller Group of Sandy, Utah, gave $787,000, bringing its total to nearly $1 million.

Another $350,000 came from the Miami-based United Capital Holdings Corp., a company controlled by members of the Poma family, wealthy Salvadoran entrepreneurs who were some of the first investors in Bain Capital, the private equity firm formerly run by Romney.

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