Obama Out-Raises Romney in August

After failing to raise as much campaign cash as Romney for five months, it appears the Obama 2012 campaign has brought in more money than Mitt Romney this August.

In releases on Monday, both campaigns publicized their fund raising results. Obama collected $114 million while Romney brought in just short of that at $111 million. Both campaigns seem largely fueled by small donations as Romney saw 94% of his donations come from those giving $250 or less while Obama took 98% from that same donation level.

Obama campaign manager Jim Messina hinted that their efforts to broaden their support base was the reason for the reversal of fortunes. August had Obama receiving donations from 317,000 donors that had not previously donated to his campaign. Messina mentioned a large grassroots effort by the campaign and couldn’t help but add in a class warfare stab at Romney by saying that their “key to fighting back against the special interests writing limitless checks to support Mitt Romney is growing our donor base, and we did substantially in the month of August.”

Oddly, Messina implies that Obama isn’t using the same Super PAC strategy as the Republican candidate. Priorities USA, a Democrat super PAC, is considering Rahm Emanuel’s suggested target of raising more than $150 million in the final weeks for the incumbent. That same PAC started a massive $30 million ad campaign this last week targeting Mitt Romney.

Prior to August, Republican money raising had brought in $60 million more than President Obama and affiliated Democrat fund raisers. The focus on kicking Democrat PACs into gear appears to be reversing that trend.

Romney now has accesss to several million dollars he accumulated during his nomination bid. The campaign’s cash burn rate has begun to accelerate as November nears and will likely outspend Obama in the final weeks.

Obama had spent at a blistering pace earlier in the campaign which could leave him unable to match his opponent in late election spending.  On twiiter, the Obama campaign seems resigned to being out raised in September as they tweeted, “No celebrating, because they’re going to have an even bigger September.”