January Fundraising: Campaigns and Super PACs, Side by Side
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Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images
And the winner of January’s presidential campaign fundraising contest is … President Obama, whose campaign took in $11.83 million last month.
The pro-Newt-Gingrich super PAC Winning Our Future took a close second. With a combined $10 million given on Jan. 24 by billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and his wife, the group raised more than any other GOP presidential super PAC or campaign in the month of January.
Without the Adelsons’ donations, Winning Our Future would have lagged far behind its competitors: The Adelsons’ contributions accounted for all but $1.03 million of the group’s January haul.
The January finance totals, filed with the Federal Election Commission on Monday’s deadline, provide a snapshot of where the campaigns were three weeks ago, just after Mitt Romney’s victory in the Florida primary and before Rick Santorum’s wins in Colorado and Minnesota shifted the momentum of the race.
Now that we’ve moved into the election year, campaigns and super PACs will file every month — meaning we’ll get to see their activities three times as frequently as we have so far, with quarterly disclosure deadlines in 2011.
Below are all the basic numbers disclosed Monday. The totals only cover fundraising and spending from Jan. 1 to Jan. 31.
CAMPAIGNS
Obama for America
Raised: $11.87 million
Spent: $17.67 million
Cash on hand Jan. 1: $81.76 million
Cash on hand Jan. 31: $75.95 million
Debts/obligations: $1.06 million
Rick Santorum for President
Raised: $4.51 million
Spent: $3.32 million
Cash on hand Jan. 1: $279k
Cash on hand Jan. 31: $1.47 million
Debts/obligations: $0
Romney for President Inc.
Raised: $6.54 million
Spent: $18.78 million
Cash on hand Jan. 1: $19.92 million
Cash on hand Jan. 31: $7.68 million
Debts/obligations: $0
Newt 2012
Raised: $5.59 million
Spent: $5.91 million
Cash on hand Jan. 1: $2.11 million
Cash on hand Jan. 31: $1.79 million
Debts/obligations: $1.73 million
Ron Paul 2012 Presidential Campaign Committee Inc.
Raised: $4.48 million
Spent: $5.23 million
Cash on hand Jan. 1: $2.4 million
Cash on hand Jan. 31: $1.65 million
Debts/obligations: $0
SUPER PACs
Pro-Obama Priorities USA Action
Raised: $59k
Spent: $258k
Cash on hand Jan. 1: $1.52 million
Cash on hand Jan. 31: $1.32 million
Debts/obligations: $0
Pro-Santorum Red White and Blue Fund
Raised: $2.09 million
Spent: $1.54 million
Cash on hand Jan. 1: $78k
Cash on hand Jan. 31: $627k
Debts/obligations: $0
Pro-Romney Restore Our Future
Raised: $6.62 million
Spent: $13.94 million
Cash on hand Jan. 1: $23.62 million
Cash on hand Jan. 31: $16.3 million
Debts/obligations: $0
Pro-Gingrich Winning Our Future
Raised: $11.03 million
Spent: $9.76 million
Cash on hand Jan. 1: $1.18 million
Cash on hand Jan. 31: $2.44
Debts/obligations: $0
Pro-Paul Endorse Liberty
Raised: $2.38 million
Spent: $2.95 million
Cash on hand Jan. 1: $628k
Cash on hand Jan. 31: $60K
Debts/obligations: $0
Best Commencement Speeches of 2012 
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People, our Democracy was put up for auction and the Supreme Court has called out ‘SOLD’. Highest and winning bidder is….Super PACs.
Posted by: TampaBob | February 21, 2012, 7:45 am 7:45 am
TampaBob….you are exactly right. But watch how many ‘posters’ will even post on this subject. The American ‘voting electorate’ on the whole just does NOT pay attention to what they should. They can get ‘wound up’ on the stupidest of subjects (contraception. Planned Parenthood) etc. and totally ignore something like this that is uzurping their actual vote…their freedom…their democracy.
Posted by: CND FOX | February 21, 2012, 7:54 am 7:54 am
Super Pacs have no place in our democracy. Our leaders should not be chosen by the wealthy and powerful to represent their interests first, rather than represent all of our interests, including the middle class and the poor.
Pay attention to the amounts of those Super Pacs and how much more money is in them for Romney than for Obama and it is clear who the wealthy are thinking will make them richer, at the expense of the rest of us. Because the middle class and poor pay for it when the super wealthy get tax breaks, as it raises our national debt and then our taxes have to go up or important things get cut, like our military, aid to the poor, education, etc. We all pay when the wealthy get their people controlling the White House and/or Congress.
Posted by: Librarian53 | February 21, 2012, 8:26 am 8:26 am
Love what Adelson said in Forbes the other day: “I’m against very wealthy people attempting to or influencing elections,” he is quoted as saying to the magazine. Adelson continued: “But as long as it’s doable I’m going to do it.”
Posted by: A Cynic | February 21, 2012, 8:50 am 8:50 am
Romney’s campaign in Florida showed how bad this can get. We need to fix this ASAP.
Posted by: newcountryman | February 21, 2012, 10:14 am 10:14 am
One has to read (very quickly) the small print at the bottom of these TV ads now about who is funding these PACs. Apparently, you need toi know the difference between “Restore our Future”, “Win the Future” among others. Even then it’s much more difficult to know who the actual players (contributors) are. Also, when Obama gets his Super PAC up and running (he doesn’t need to right yet and so far it’s only gathered $59,000), it’ll probably also have something about the “future”. Be afraid, no one can hear you scream in the vacumn of Washington politics.
Posted by: newcountryman | February 21, 2012, 11:31 am 11:31 am
These super PACS wouldn’t even exist if the conservative Supreme Court had not ruled that the McCain-Feingold Bill was a violation of the fat cat’s freedom of speech rights.
All the Mafia guys should be released, because when they bought and paid for public officials and politicians their 1st amendment rights were violated.
Posted by: tmferretti | February 21, 2012, 12:23 pm 12:23 pm