Romney Left Convention With $50 Million to Spend on Campaign

Republican presidential candidate
Mitt Romney emerged from his party’s nominating convention with
$50.4 million to spend on his campaign, Federal Election
Commission filings show.

Romney raised $86.6 million last month, including $39.2
million from a joint fundraising committee with the Republican
National Committee and state parties, and took out a $20 million
loan secured by future campaign donations to pay expenditures
until he became the nominee. The campaign reported owing $15
million at the end of August, though it has since paid back
another $4 million.

The former Massachusetts governor reported $50.4 million in
the bank as of Aug. 31, the day after he accepted his party’s
nomination at the Republican National Convention in Tampa,
Florida.

He has now raised more than $283 million for his campaign.
President Barack Obama is to disclose his August fundraising
later today. He reported raising more than $356 million through
July 31 for both the pre-convention period and the general
election.

Super-PACs

Romney has also been helped by the fundraising prowess of
the Republican National Committee and super-political action
committees. Both have raised more money than their Democratic
counterparts for the presidential election.

One of the super-PACs, Restore Our Future, raised $7
million and spent $21 million last month — more than its
expenditures in any other month and more than in the three
previous months combined.

Restore Our Future helped carry Romney’s message and
attacked Obama at a time when his campaign was running short on
money because it couldn’t yet tap its general-election funds.
Television and online advertising accounted for almost the
entire August super-PAC budget.

Restore Our Future, which had about $6.3 million cash on
hand at the end of the month, has raised $96.7 million and spent
$90.3 million for the 2012 election.

Top contributors last month, each for $1 million, included
Odyssey Re Holding Corp. in Stamford, Connecticut, and Robert Parsons, founder and executive chairman of Godaddy.com Inc.

To contact the reporters on this story:
Julie Bykowicz in Washington at
jbykowicz@bloomberg.net;
Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at
jsalant@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Jeanne Cummings at

You can read the rest of this article at:: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-09-20/romney-left-convention-with-50-million-to-spend-on-campaign

Short URL: http://thepresidency.us/?p=20297

Posted by RobertButler on Sep 20 2012. Filed under 2012 Presidential Campaign. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry