Romney reaches halfway point toward $800 million fundraising goal
Mitt Romney has reached the halfway mark in filling his
$800 million campaign war chest, a leading fundraiser for the campaign said on
Thursday.
Woody Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets, said the
campaign's joint committee had raised nearly $400 million, which was about half
of its goal.
"We’re about halfway through our fundraising, and so
if you feel tired now, you gotta go take a couple vitamins because we’re gonna
really have a strong push to the finish line," Johnson said at a
fundraiser with Romney in Manhattan. "It’s a little bit like chopping
wood. You look over at your pile and you can actually see how it looks.”
Romney supporter Emil Henry, a former official at the
Treasury Department, also heralded the Romney fundraising machine.
"The governor is out raising a sitting president of
the United States," Henry said to loud applause.
It would be a stunning blow to President Obama, who has a
reputation for being a consummate fundraiser, if his GOP rival out-raises him.
The Romney campaign has brought in more cash than Obama
for each of the last three months, including $25 million more than Team Obama
in July. The president and Democrats still hold an overall advantage — having
raised about $600 million since April 2011 — thanks to the Republican primary,
which prevented Romney from accepting large-dollar donations early on and split
donors among the GOP contenders.
The $800 million goal means that the Romney campaign
believes it can beat the record-breaking $750 million haul by Obama during his
2008 run and that it's on track to continue the aggressive pace set since
clinching the nomination.
Team Romney originally set the goal in April, according
to a memo obtained at the time by The New York Times.
Some Democrats had predicted Romney's fundraising might
dry up after an initial post-primary surge, but the presumptive GOP nominee has
continued to bring in strong totals. Nor is the Obama campaign on pace to
approach the $1 billion total some speculated he could raise prior to the
election — though his campaign has consistently downplayed that figure.
Comments
Post a Comment