Mitt Romney.<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/seth/399340323/sizes/m/in/photostream/">sethrubenstein</a>
The Mitt Romney money machine is showing no sign of slowing down.
Romney’s re-election effort raised north of nine figures for the second month in a row, raking in $101.3 million in July, his campaign announced Monday. That comes after raising $106 million in June, a blockbuster haul that topped the Obama campaign’s June fundraising by $35 million.
The Obama campaign, Obama Victory Fund, and Democratic National Committee said they’d together raised more than $75 million in July. That makes the third straight month in which the Romney campaign, Romney Victory Fund, and Republican National Committee outraised Obama and affiliated Democratic groups.
It’s still unlikely that Romney will raise more than Obama, despite the Obama campaign’s many emails suggesting otherwise. By the end of June, Obama and affiliated Democratic groups had raised $552 million to Romney and the GOP’s $394 million. The Sunlight Foundation’s Bill Allison noted that, at the current pace, Romney would have to beat Obama’s monthly fundraising total by an average of $39.5 million in July, August, September, and October to come out on top.
That’s not impossible. But the chances of Romney pulling that off are slim, especially as less-motivated Democratic donors who’ve stayed on the sidelines thus far notice tightening polls and finally crack open their checkbooks. What Romney can count on, though, is a sizeable advantage in GOP outside spending by super-PACs and secretive nonprofit groups—a difference that, on Election Day, could prove crucial.
