One of the most surprising new stories that has popped up over the past week is Mitt Romney's supposed lack of cash. Many diaries have been posted about Restore our Future, the Romney SuperPAC that was down to $6 million COH when they filed in August, and Romney's $20 million dollar primary deficit. Below the squiggle, I will go over some of the campaign spending each campaign is undertaking in the "battleground" states and explain why Obama has developed an advantage on this front.
In a Yahoo article titled Obama has more campaign money to spend than Romney, the authors, Julie Pace and Kasie Hunt state:
At the end of August, President Barack Obama had about $88.8 million to spend on the final months of the campaign, nearly twice as much as Republican rival Mitt Romney, according to campaign fundraising reports released Thursday.
In the same article, it states Romney himself had $50.4 million in COH.
THAT'S why we haven't seen as many "I'm Mitt Romney and I approve this message" commercials as we thought.
Note: This number is independent of the combined Obama/DNC vs. Romney/RNC numbers, which were $114 million for Obama and the DNC as opposed to $111 million for Romney and the RNC. This means that Obama is raising much more of his own money that OFA can use for its own ads, while much of Romney's party money must be used in conjunction with the RNC, who will spend some on down-ballot races (not exclusively on Romney).
This has a knock-on effect in battleground ad spending, where even the Republican SuperPACs have not really overwhelmed OFA and the Dems yet. If we look at the combined ad spending in all the battlegrounds this week (September 18-September 24), we see a pretty good picture for our side.
National Journal has a very good rundown of the battleground spending, state by state.
Ohio:
Obama/OFA: $3,005,969
Priorities USA: $704,179
Planned Parenthood: $294,790
Overall Democratic/allied spending: $4,004,938
Romney/RNC: $2,582,874
Crossroads GPS: $352,001
Restore our Future: $0
Americans for Prosperity: $0
Overall Republican/allied spending: $2,934,875. Advantage to the Democrats in Ohio.
Florida:
Obama/OFA: $3,356,323
Priorities USA: $771,075
Overall Democratic/allied spending: $4,127,398
Romney/RNC: $2,963,397
Crossroads GPS: $0
Restore our Future: $0
Americans for Prosperity: $0
Overall Republican/allied spending: $2,963,397. Advantage to the Democrats in Florida.
Virginia:
Obama/OFA: $3,439,617
Priorities USA: $341,444
Planned Parenthood: $367,104
Overall Democratic/allied spending: $4,148,165
Romney/RNC: $2,064,970
Crossroads GPS: $1,235,688
Restore our Future: $0
Americans for Prosperity: $0
Overall Republican/allied spending: $3,300,658. Advantage to the Democrats in Virginia.
Colorado:
Obama/OFA: $1,378,894
Priorities USA: $502,068
Overall Democratic/allied spending: $1,880,962
Romney/RNC: $878,698
Crossroads GPS: $598,734
Restore our Future: $0
Americans for Prosperity: $0
Overall Republican/allied spending: $1,477,432. Advantage to the Democrats in Colorado.
North Carolina:
Obama/OFA: $683,192
Romney/RNC:$832,629. Slight advantage to the Republicans in North Carolina, but not at all insurmountable. I was surprised to see no SuperPAC spending in NC for either side this week (according to National Journal).
Iowa:
Obama/OFA: $1,095,155
Priorities USA: $225,844
Overall Democratic/allied spending: $1,320,999
Romney/RNC: $497,378
Crossroads GPS: $208,089
Restore our Future: $0
Americans for Prosperity: $0
Overall Republican/allied spending: $705,467. The Democrats have almost a 2:1 ad spending advantage in Iowa.
New Hampshire:
Obama/OFA: $1,492,311 (big ad buy in Boston TV market, most likely).
Romney/RNC: $201,841
Crossroads GPS: $854,370
Overall Republican/allied spending: $1,056,211. The Democrats still have an advantage here.
Nevada:
Obama/OFA: $948,137
Priorities USA: $69,001
Total Democratic/allied spending: $1,017,138
Romney/RNC: $538,576
Crossroads GPS: $930,965 (big ad buy this week by Rove in Clark County).
Total Republican/allied spending: $1,465,941. The GOP has an advantage here, but well within the 2:1 ratio the Democrats can live with.
Wisconsin:
The one spot where the GOP has really ramped up its spending, but I'm not sure if it will move the needle in their direction (Obama is at almost 52% in the poll averages).
Obama/OFA: $410,032
Priorities USA: $215,953
Total Democratic/allied spending: $625,985
Romney/RNC: $557,240
Crossroads GPS: $792,781 (Rove's first ad buy in Wisconsin this cycle)
Restore our Future: $917,563
Total Republican/allied spending: $2,267,584. This is the only state on the map that anyone can call a "battleground" where the GOP is swamping the Dems in ad spending.
In Michigan, Restore our Future made a $1.15 million ad buy. The Democrats are not spending there, because their polls are looking really good right now.
Pennsylvania and New Mexico are still dark.
Just a note of caution in these numbers. Due to the amount on money Rove fundraised for his SuperPAC, these ratios are probably going to move against us a little bit in October. However, this is an electorate that seems so locked into their choice that the October spending might not matter as much as in past years.