President Obama has significantly less money on hand than Mitt Romney as he heads into the presidential race’s home stretch, according to documents filed on Monday with the Federal Election Commission. It’s the latest evidence that the president will have to overcome a possibly enormous financial disadvantage to win reelection.
Obama for America, the Obama Victory Fund, and the Democratic National Committee had a combined $124 million on hand to close July, the FEC reports show. The total was roughly $60 million less than the $186 million haul the Romney campaign announced earlier in August, raised with the assistance of the Republican National Committee.
The president’s campaign has spent heavily on ads over the summer in an effort to define the former Massachusetts governor. That effort has been at least somewhat successful, but along with an intensive ground operation in the swing states, it has depleted the campaign’s finances.
Romney, meanwhile, has been restricted from spending much of his cash until after the GOP convention. But he’s been aided by a flotilla of Republican outside groups, such as American Crossroads, that have spent tens of millions on ads pummeling the president since Romney emerged from the GOP primary.
The financial might of those independent organizations have stirred panic among some Democrats, who worry that their spending could steamroll the vulnerable president.
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