Last week I wondered aloud why we had not yet heard any reports of the Obama campaign’s June fundraising totals. While the campaign had been silent on its numbers, it had been sending out increasingly desperate pleas for donations as it continued its policy of raffling off the president for dinners and celebrity visits. My guess last week was that the Obama campaign was trying to figure out how to handle the tactics of releasing a fundraising number that failed to meet its own expectations of being the first billion dollar presidential campaign, and failed to keep up with Mitt Romney’s gaudy $106 million total for the month.
Today, we get confirmation: Obama’s fundraising is lagging Mitt Romney’s fundraising by a wide margin.
According to the Boston Globe, the Obama campaign raised $71 million in June. While that is an impressive number, it is far from his 2008 monthly record of $150 million and $35 million dollars less than the Romney haul in June. That gap should be added to the $18 million gap the Obama campaign admitted to in May, when Romney outraised Obama $78 million to $60 million. It’s also worth factoring in that while Obama enjoyed an unopposed primary and raised massive amounts of money during that period while Romney fought an expensive and hotly contested primary, in May, the Obama campaign began to spend more cash than it was taking in.
The fundraising gap may be getting the best of the president. Last week he claimed that he was outspent in 2008, when the fact is, he outspent his rival by nearly half a billion dollars.
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