WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama said Monday he raised $ 71 million in June for his re-election campaign, after Republican candidate Mitt Romney reported $ 106 million during the same period. It was the second consecutive month that Romney collected more cash and underscores the challenge for Obama ahead of November.
The news for Obama came as his campaign officials have publicly worried they were on track to lose the money race. Obama's campaign manager, Jim Messina, in an e-mail to supporters just three days ago, said: "Their gap is getting wider, and if it continues at this pace, it could cost us the election."
Obama is fighting on two fronts to keep the presidency: On one hand, he faces Romney's own war chest that pays for campaign operations. On the other, he has to push back against the hundreds of millions of dollars flowing to GOP-aligned super political action committees, or PACs, which have aired continual attack ads aimed at Obama and his record.
Indeed, wealthy donors have been instrumental in helping Romney beat Obama in fund-raising. When he broke fund-raising records last month, Romney's campaign praised small-dollar donors for making it possible. But actually, a small and often wealthy number of donors were responsible, giving an average of about $ 2,400 each.
Like Obama, Romney often touts the high percentage of donors who gave less than $ 250, underscoring the perception that a large, grassroots group of Americans want him in the White House. Romney's campaign said that about 94% of 571,000 donors gave those amounts in June, or about $ 22 million.
But that leaves a little more than 34,000 responsible for the rest of the $ 83.8 million. That's about $ 2,400 on average per person.
Obama's campaign hosts glitzy campaign events, more recently at actor George Clooney's mansion in California. But Romney's fund-raising surge underscores how wealthy donors are creating a challenge for Obama -- who once assailed the influence of corporate money and super PACs.
Republican-aligned super PACs, including Restore Our Future and American Crossroads, plan to spend hundreds of millions of dollars this election to defeat Obama. Although Obama has super PACs working in his favor, they haven't harnessed the large sums of money that the pro-Romney groups have been able to do so far.
As a result, Obama's campaign has said repeatedly that the president could be the first incumbent to be out-raised by his challenger. That message has come lately in the form of online fund-raising pleas, asking supporters for small donations -- usually $ 3 -- to push back against Romney.
"We exceeded expectations -- more than 706,000 people like you stepped up and pitched in for a grand total of $ 71 million raised for this campaign and the Democratic Party," said Ann Marie Habershaw, the Obama campaign's chief operating officer.
"Bad news? We still got beat," she said. "Handily."
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