In 2008, Barack Obama shattered all election fundraising records, raising three-quarters of $1 billion and outspending John McCain 2 to 1. Because so much of the money came from small donors, the Obama campaign made the largest fundraising haul in election history look like an organic, grassroots embodiment of democracy. It was the first time that the strength of fundraising was key not only to a candidate's campaign but to his story.
Obama's on his way to meeting, if not besting that total for 2012, but the grassroots aura of the effort is gone: Obama is, Crossroads GPS will happily remind you, a celebrity, and much of his fundraising comes from dinners with George Clooney, neither of which are consonant with the populist tinge of his reelection campaign. This puts the Obama campaign in a bind: fundraising is the marker of the organization's strength, but the more money Obama raises the more he distances himself from his own narrative.
What's a populist campaign to do? Fortunately, Mitt Romney and the GOP have the answer. Two weeks ago, the Romney campaign gleefully announced it had raised $77 million in May, $17 million more than the Obama campaign, the first time that Romney had bested the incumbent in the fundraising race. Crossroads and other Super PACs, their fundraising abilities unleashed by Citizens United, have pledged to spend an additional $1 billion in support of Romney and GOP congressional candidates. Shelden Adelson has promised unprecedented amounts of money from his own checkbook.
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The response to all this from the Democrats and the Obama campaign? Keep it coming. Rather than play down the Romney fundraising figures, the Obama campaign and the DNC are hyping Romney's totals for him. (Email from Jim Messina on May fundraising totals: "We got beat.") Here's what a Democratic strategist told ABC News:
"I think [Romney's] going to have a $100 million month this month between he and the RNC," the strategist said. "I think you are going to see another huge month from him."
"Given Sen. Kerry outraised Bush two to one in the first couple of months after he won the nomination, I think Romney is going to continue to have big months. Combined with that with the super PAC stuff, we're going to be the first incumbent outspent."
Why is a Democratic strategist thumping Romney's chest for him? The list of major Romney donors suggests an answer:
Much of Restore Our Future's cash in May came from first-time donors, including a $500,000 check from Arkansas billionaire investment banker Warren Stephens.
Another check of that size came from Pennsylvania healthcare executive and founder of Select Medical Rocco Ortenzio, whose total donation is now $750,000.
Three companies linked to Robert Brockman, an executive at Dayton, Ohio-based Reynolds and Reynolds, split $1 million in donations. The companies - CRC Information Systems Inc, Fairbanks Properties LLC and Waterbury Properties LLC - share a P.O. box with Brockman's car dealership support company.
Notably absent from the filing is billionaire Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, whose $10 million pledge to the group this month is expected to be disclosed in July.
[...] Crossroads received a $1 million donation from Dallas-based real estate investment firm Crow Holdings, for a total of $1.5 million in contributions from the company. Billionaire coal executive Joe Craft of Tulsa, Oklahoma gave $1.25 million in addition to his company's total gift of $850,000.
Priorities received three $1 million checks in May from Houston lawyer Steve Mostyn and Florida retiree Barbara Stiefel, as well as Franklin Haney, CEO of Washington-based real estate firm FLH Company.
Those are donations to Romney's Super PAC, not to Romney himself, but the Obama campaign won't mind if you don't make the distinction: the giant amounts of money coming in from executives and plutocrats underscores the Obama campaign's narrative of Mitt Romney the vulture capitalist, who's running for President only so he can further rig the laws for the benefit of wealthy. The Obama campaign is preparing to make the argument that Ron Paul fans have been making in all caps in comments sections for the past nine months: Mitt Romney is buying the election.
In other words, the OBama campaign wants many more headlines like these:
Since Obama can't match Romney's totals—the left's aversion to Super PACs has left Obama's Priorities USA dwindling behind Restore Our Future and Crossroads—he has everything to gain by touting Romney's fundraising numbers. Expect Obama to reference Romney's totals, to the dollar, in debates; expect to see Romney's totals in large, spooky typeface across DNC ads. Just as Obama's 2008 fundraising became not just part of his campaign's treasury but part of its story, Romney's funds are about to become a metonymn of his candidacy. And the campaign that broke all fundraising records four years ago now finds itself in the best position possible for a populist incumbent: underdog.
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