Overall in June, Mitt Romney outraised President Obama by $35 million, $106 million to $71 million. But as I explained on Wednesday, those numbers only tell part of the story. Today, we learned that just $33 million of Romney's $106 million haul went directly to his campaign. The remaining $73 million went to the RNC and its affiliated committees. Why did so much more money go to the RNC? Well, the maximum donation to the Romney Victory Fund is $75,000'but only $5,000 of that goes to Romney's campaign. The remaining $70,000 goes to the RNC and its affiliated committees.
Because Romney's fundraising is so top heavy, most of his money goes to the RNC. That's important to understand because the party money is less useful than the campaign money. Every dollar in excess of $21 million that goes to the party cannot be legally spent in coordination with the campaign. It must be spent through an independent expenditure committee. Assuming Romney and the RNC follow the law, that will make message coordination very difficult. Moreover, while Romney (as a candidate) qualifies for discounted ad rates, the independent expenditure committee does not.
President Obama faces the same rules, but his fundraising is less top heavy than Romney's. In fact, he actually raised more money for his campaign'$46 million'than Romney did. His campaign also has far more cash in the bank: $97.5 million to Romney's $22.5 million. The president raised $25 million for the DNC and its own independent effort, and their cash on hand probably trails Romney's, but again, that money is less valuable on a dollar-for-dollar basis.
Bottom-line: Romney still had a better overall fundraising month, but the gap is nowhere near as large as the top line numbers make it seem.
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