Romney laps Obama in campaign cash

Mitt Romney and the Republican National Committee have grown a more than $25 million cash advantage over President Obama, according to just-filed Federal Election Commission reports.

Romney; who trailed Obama by $90 million at the end of March, now leads the incumbent president $170 million to $144 million in cash on hand, thanks to a surge in GOP fundraising and heavy spending by the Democrats early in the 2012 campaign.

President Obama’s campaign spent $38 million on ads and $58 million overall in June, while Romney’s campaign spent less than half that and continue to build up its reserves for the fall campaign.

Obama’s campaign raised $46 million in June, including a $17 million transfer from a joint fundraising committee with the Democratic National Committee, but it spent $58 million and saw its cash on hand fall to $97.5 million.

That $97.5 million figure is far more than Romney’s official campaign had at the end of June: $22.5 million. But the Romney effort is stashing huge reserves in its joint fundraising committee — nearly $58 million — and the Republican National Committee has nearly $90 million on hand, meaning that between the three, the Romney effort has about $170 million in cash.

Obama, meanwhile, doesn’t have such large cash reserves in his joint committee or the DNC. His joint committee has just $9 million, and the DNC’s June report showed $37.5 million cash on hand.

Romney outraised Obama $106 million to $71 million in June — the second straight month he has done that.

Around the time Romney became the presumptive GOP nominee in early April, Obama and the Democrats had a $132 million to $42 million edge in cash on hand over Romney and the RNC.

Since then, though, Romney has outraised Obama, and Obama has spent heavily on a TV advertising blitz in key swing states.