Romney Poised to Raise More Money Than Obama

Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney and the Republican National Committee could easily outraise President Obama and the Democratic National Committee in the seven-month sprint to the general election, according to Washington Post columnist Chris Cillizza.

Here's the fundraising math Cillizza lays out: In April, the first month in which Romney was freed up from the contentious GOP primary process, the combined haul of Romney's team and the RNC was just north of $40 million — "almost the exact amount the president and the DNC gathered in that time frame."

“It’s becoming very clear the president’s opponents are very intent on funding a candidate, regardless of how flawed he is, to win in November,” Jonathan Mantz, who served as the finance director for then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s 2008 presidential bid, told Cillizza.

“So when you look at the April filing for Romney and then add his super-PAC fundraising to date, Obama’s campaign must maintain if not step up their fundraising pace.”

Obama won’t have the massive fundraising gap over Romney that he enjoyed in the 2008 contest against Sen. John McCain of Arizona, Cillizza writes.

In that race, Obama raised an astonishing $771 million while McCain brought in $239 million — a total that included roughly $85 million in public financing funds for the general election.

"That means Obama collected (and spent) three times as much money as McCain, a huge gap that almost certainly put the Democrat over the top in places such as Indiana and North Carolina and cushioned his margins in other swing states such as Florida and Ohio," Cillizza points out.

“There were still a good number of historic Republican donors who had been holding out, but with Mitt now the presumptive nominee, they are coming off the sidelines quickly,” one major Romney donor told Cillizza. “Recent Romney fundraisers are exceeding goals.”

Cillizza also points out what he calls the "Romney X-factor: his massive personal wealth, which — with the exception of a recent $150,000 donation to a joint fundraising committee for the campaign and the RNC — he has yet to dip into in this election. Although his campaign has been tight-lipped about how much more he could or would give, remember that Romney gave almost $45 million to his failed 2008 presidential primary campaign."

Together, with a pledge from the leading conservative super PAC to spend better than $200 million, it becomes quite possible that Obama, "the single greatest fundraiser in the history of American politics," might get outraised (and outspent) between now and Nov. 6.