Priorities USA, the Democratic super PAC tasked with re-electing President Obama, raised a paltry $1.6 million in April, lagging far behind Republican powerhouses now threatening to tip the fundraising balance in the general election to Mitt Romney.
Thanks to a series of Supreme Court and FEC decisions in 2010, this is the first presidential cycle in which individuals and corporations can spend unlimited money on ads, meaning just a handful of billionaires could potentially overpower Obama’s more than 2 million individual donors in overall spending.
Democrats are not getting much backup in the outside money department from their own wealthy donors. Restore Our Future, a super PAC backing Romney that was instrumental to his primary campaign, raised a relatively weak $4.6 million in April — and that was a relatively weak month. American Crossroads, a super PAC connected to Karl Rove, raised $1.8 million — also worse than its usual haul.
But the picture gets worse when factoring in the groups’ total cash on hand. Priorities USA finished April with $4.7 million available. Restore Our Future had $8.2 million and American Crossroads a whopping $25.5 million. In addition, a nonprofit spinoff of American Crossroads, Crossroads GPS, which does not disclose donors, recently announced a $25 million ad campaign.
Obama still has the advantage overall for now with a much larger war chest ($115 million) than Romney’s ($61 million), thanks to the Republican’s heavy expenditures in the primary and his struggle to match the president’s strength with small donors. While Romney’s own campaign has yet to hit its stride in the money race, its joint fundraising with the RNC shot up in April, putting their combined totals for the month close to Obama’s and the DNC’s. But with the GOP’s contentious nominating contest over and Republicans coalescing around their new champion, Obama’s lack of wealthy super PAC donors is starting to look dire.
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