Republican campaign spending splurge worries Democrats

Republicans raised and spent money for the presidential race at a frenetic pace in January, according to financial disclosures that also show why Democrats are concerned about the flagging Super PAC that supports President Barack Obama.

The breathtaking pace of fundraising and spending in the race for the Republican presidential nomination also revealed why campaigns are increasingly likely to rely on independent political action committees, or PACs, to boost their efforts.

Unlike campaigns, PACs have no limits on what they can raise or spend, so a few wealthy donors to a PAC can have a dramatic impact on a race.

The evolving nature of campaign funding was particularly evident in January with Mitt Romney’s campaign and its ally, the aggressive Super PAC known as Restore Our Future.

Financial reports filed with the Federal Election Commission indicate that Romney’s campaign spent $19 million (€14.32m) in January — nearly three times as much as it raised. The former Massachusetts governor defeated Newt Gingrich in New Hampshire, lost to him in South Carolina and then beat him in Florida.

Restore Our Future, meanwhile, raised $6.6m and spent $13.5m, mostly on ads attacking Gingrich, that helped Romney win the Florida primary.

By the end of January, Romney’s campaign had $7.7m on hand and the pro-Romney PAC had $16.3m.

The campaigns of Gingrich and Rick Santorum stayed in the game by raising $5.6m and $4.5m respectively. But in Gingrich’s case, the PAC supporting him — called Winning Our Future — was at least as influential as his campaign.

The pro-Gingrich PAC attracted $10m in donations from the family of Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, and funded ads attacking Romney that helped Gingrich, a former US House of Representatives speaker, win South Carolina’s primary.

The fundraising and spending among Republicans contrasted with the January performance of the Super PAC that supports Obama. The PAC, called Priorities USA Action, reported raising only $59,000 — $50,000 of that from one donor.

Priorities USA had just $1.3m in cash on hand at the end of January, the FEC filings show.

The pro-Obama PAC’s report revealed why the White House scrambled earlier this month to start pursuing PAC donations more aggressively, something Obama — a critic of the 2010 Supreme Court decision that allowed unlimited donations to PACs — had been unwilling to endorse.

The good news for Obama is that his campaign’s war chest — built on donations of no greater than $2,500, the federal limit for individual contributions — is far larger than that of any Republican candidate. At the end of January, Obama’s campaign had $76m on hand, the FEC filings show.

“What [Obama’s team has] come to realise is that given the strength of the Super PAC fundraising on the Republican side, a major financial advantage is no longer guaranteed,” said Anthony Corrado, a campaign finance analyst and professor at Colby College in Maine.

In unleashing millions of dollars into the Republican campaign, Super PACs largely have taken over the dirty job of running poll-changing attack ads.

Restore Our Future, the best-organised and deepest-pocketed PAC, now has raised nearly $37m, heavily funded by the investment community. Romney is a former private equity executive.

Rival Super PACs supporting Gingrich and Santorum, Romney’s biggest challenger for the Republican nomination, each have relied largely on the donations of one or two wealthy donors.