WASHINGTON — Campaign fundraising tallies continued
to dribble out Thursday, with President Barack Obama’s effort announcing
a $70 million haul in the third quarter and party committees releasing
their latest totals.
Obama’s campaign easily
exceeded its stated $55 million goal, but came in under its
second-quarter take in part due to the cancellation of more than a dozen
fundraisers when the president was pinned down in Washington by the
summertime debt crisis. Nevertheless, the tally outdistanced anything
raised by the GOP candidates.
Of the $70 million
total, $42.8 million was raised for Obama for America, the president’s
campaign committee, and $27.3 million went to the Democratic National
Committee, which has a higher maximum contribution limit for
individuals.
At this point in the 2004 campaign,
incumbent President George W. Bush raised $50.1 million for his
re-election effort, then a record-setting sum for a fundraising quarter
in a pre-election year.
Most of Obama’s money — 98
percent, according to the campaign — came from small-dollar donations
($250 or less). In the last three months, more than 600,000 people gave
money to the re-election effort.
Fundraising
totals for Obama’s GOP challengers have also trickled out in recent
days, ahead of the Saturday filing deadline. Texas Gov. Rick Perry
announced last week he raised $17 million in August and September. Texas
Rep. Ron Paul took in $8 million from more than 100,000 individuals.
And Mitt Romney, former Massachusetts governor, will likely bring in $14
million, according to advisers. The rest of the GOP field has not
divulged figures.
Among other fundraising
entities, the Republican National Committee said this week it had raised
$9.3 million in September alone, a record for a non-election year. The
committee reported it had $11.4 million cash on hand.
Meantime,
the Democratic National Committee is expected to report raising $14.3
million in September, a spokesman said late Thursday.
For
all the money sloshing around in the traditional campaign finance
structure, the significance of those receipts is undercut this election
cycle by the emergence of new super PACs — including one announced
Thursday that will raise unlimited amounts for Republican congressional
candidates.
Super PACS, an outgrowth of the 2010
Citizens United Supreme Court decision, allow corporations, unions and
individuals to contribute unlimited sums to organizations supporting a
favored candidate or group of candidates, as long as the new groups do
not coordinate with the official campaigns. Campaigns, in contrast,
operate under sharp restrictions in the size and source of donations.
Last
year, outside groups such as American Crossroads played a notable role
in shaping congressional elections by backing GOP candidates and causes
in key districts. The Karl Rove-backed group, along with its nonprofit
affiliate Crossroads GPS, raised more than $70 million for the 2010
cycle. For 2012, the group set a $240 million fundraising goal.
This
year saw the emergence of super PACs aligned with specific candidates,
including at the presidential campaign level Obama, Perry, Romney, Paul,
Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Ambassador Jon Huntsman Jr.
The
new addition is the “Congressional Leadership Fund,” a Republican group
that will kick off Nov. 2 with a fundraiser headlined by “special
guests” House Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor and Whip
Kevin McCarthy.
This is a second foray into super
PACs by the chairman of the fund’s board of directors, former Minnesota
Sen. Norm Coleman. Last year, he formed American Action Network, which
promotes conservative causes.
“I always welcome
another group to work with,” said Carl Forti, a veteran Republican
operative who serves as political director of American Crossroads and
leads Restore Our Future, a Romney-aligned super PAC.
Democrats
on Capitol Hill have formed similar organizations to raise funds for
congressional candidates, and last week an aide to Cantor announced that
he too was starting an outside group to back GOP candidates. At least
one group has formed to advocate for a single candidate: The Deseret
News reported last month that supporters of Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch
have organized the Strong Utah PAC to help the longtime senator fend off
a primary challenge from the party’s tea party flank.
A Democratic political consultant, David DiMartino, said the new money is upending the nature of congressional elections.
“In
the current environment any individual running for office has to be
concerned that the campaign may be waged on issues completely out of
their control,” he said.
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