Quarterly fundraising totals are due today and Mitt Romney is the first to put out some confirmed numbers: $15 to $20 million, according to a campaign source.
The quarterly cash gives him a total of between $25 and $35 million raised overall. While Romney’s haul is expected to easily outpace the rest of the field, the numbers fall short of the huge figures some fundraisers had touted to the press in recent months and are roughly in line with his quarterly performance in 2008, when he was less established as a frontrunner. In March, one fundraiser raised the bar as high as $50 million by the early summer filing deadline in an interview with the WSJ. Expectations were further boosted after he raised over $10 million at one Vegas event.
The hope then was that total domination in the cash game would spook his rivals and kill their credibility as general election nominees. There are still possible gains on that front: one of Romney’s chief rivals, Tim Pawlenty, is rumored to have taken in a weak total after news broke he wasn’t paying some top staffers.
President Obama’s campaign has set a goal of raising $60 million for the quarter, although the total includes contributions to the Democratic National Committee as well as his own 2012 outfit.
Benjy Sarlin
Benjy Sarlin is a reporter for Talking Points Memo and co-writes the campaign blog, TPM2012. He previously reported for The Daily Beast/Newsweek as their Washington Correspondent and covered local politics for the New York Sun.
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