(Updates with pro-Obama super-PAC in last two paragraphs. For more campaign news, go to ELECT.)
Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney raised $51.8 million in the first half of October and entered the final three weeks of the race with $52.7 million to spend, Federal Election Commission reports show.
Romney has now raised more than $413 million, including the $20 million loan he took out to cover campaign spending until he formally received the nomination at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida, in August. He has paid down $17 million of that loan, including $2 million this month.
In his final campaign finance report before the Nov. 6 election, Romney reported spending $62.3 million, including the $2 million repayment, and now has spent more than $360 million. He spent an estimated $30 million to run 42,937 ads in 50 television markets from Oct. 1-21, according to an analysis of data from Kantar Media’s CMAG by the Wesleyan Media Project at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut.
President Barack Obama is to file his report later today with the FEC. He spent an estimated $65 million on 97,170 ads in 57 markets during the first three weeks of October, according to the Wesleyan Media Project.
Romney also got a boost from a super-political action committee supporting his candidacy. Restore Our Future took in $20.2 million from Oct. 1-17, bringing its total to $131.7 million, and spent $12 million on ads during the first 17 days of October. It reported $24.2 million in the bank as of Oct. 17.
Swing States
Restore Our Future announced on Oct. 23 that it would spend $17.7 million on ads in 10 swing states -- Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin -- where political analysts of both parties say the presidential race will be decided. More than half the money -- $9.9 million -- will be spent in Florida, Ohio and Virginia, the group said.
“This presidential election will be determined by those Americans who are demanding better than a high unemployment rate, a crushing national debt and falling incomes,” said Charlie Spies, treasurer of Restore Our Future.
Casino executive Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam each contributed $5 million to the super-PAC. The Adelsons’ combined donation of $10 million brought to $20 million the amount that the chairman and chief executive officer of the Las Vegas Sands Corp. and his wife have given to Restore Our Future.
Donors of $1 million included Julian Robertson, chief executive officer of the New York-based hedge fund Tiger Management LLC; and Harold Simmons, chairman of Dallas-based Contran Corp., bringing his total to $2.3 million.
The pro-Obama super-PAC, Priorities USA Action, brought in $13 million, including $1 million apiece from investor George Soros, venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, LinkedIn Corp. chairman Reid Garrett Hoffman and Mark Pincus, the chief executive officer of Zynga Inc., the San Francisco-based creator of the online game Farmville. The painters’ union also contributed $1 million and the American Federation of Teachers donated $750,000.
Priorities USA Action has now raised $64 million. It spent $9.4 million on ads from Oct. 1-17 and had $10.1 million in the bank.
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