Fundraising Gap between Romney and Santorum Narrows Dramatically

Mar 7, 2012 • By JEFFREY H. ANDERSON

The Weekly Standard:

Back when Rick Santorum was driving around Iowa in the “Chuck Truck,” the ratio between Mitt Romney’s and Santorum’s respective fundraising hauls was far greater than the ratio between the respective payrolls of the Boston Red Sox and the Pittsburgh Pirates. For every $1 that Santorum raised in 2011, Romney raised $26. In all, Santorum raised $2.2 million that year, to Romney’s $56.5 million.

That gap has since narrowed dramatically. So far in 2012, for every $1 that Santorum has raised, Romney has raised $1.31 ($13.5 million for Santorum, $17.7 million for Romney). For every $1 that Santorum raised in February alone, Romney raised $1.28 ($9 million for Santorum, $11.5 million for Romney). Moreover, February was not Romney’s biggest fundraising month, while Santorum raised more in February than he had in all previous months of his campaign combined.

Meanwhile, Romney’s spending in 2012 has dwarfed his fundraising. In January, Romney spent about three times as much (nearly $19 million) as he took in (a little over $6 million). That same month, his super PAC raised $6.6 million and spent nearly $14 million. By the end of January (the last point for which such figures are available), Romney had spent $55 million in total — more than ten times the $5.2 million that Santorum had spent.

About 50 percent of Santorum’s fundraising through January had come from small individual donors, compared to 10 percent for Romney.