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A Stark Edge in Race for '08 Cash
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Romney spokesman Kevin Madden said in a statement that his candidate's "strong fundraising support shows we have both the dedicated commitment and the ample resources to communicate Governor Romney's message and continue building our campaign's grassroots infrastructure."
Romney has raised almost $44 million since he officially entered the race this year. But virtually unknown nationally, he has also been forced to spend at a faster pace than his rivals. His campaign reported that it spent as much as it raised this spring, probably more than $20 million, leaving it with about the same $12 million it had in the bank at the end of March.
Details of the spending will not be available until the finance reports are released on July 15. Romney has been broadcasting costly television commercials for months, primarily in the states such as Iowa and New Hampshire that will hold early nominating contests. A Nielsen study showed that he had aired more than 4,500 ads as of June 10, almost half of them in Iowa.
Romney, a multimillionaire, has now lent his campaign a total of about $9 million. Without the loans from his personal fortune, Romney would have only about $3 million in the bank to spend this year.
McCain is in even worse shape. Campaign manager Terry Nelson said this week that McCain may be forced to accept matching money from the federal government, along with strict spending limits that are part of the bargain.
That would increase the disparity with Democrats, who are all but certain to abandon public financing for their primary campaigns so that they could freely raise -- and spend -- whatever they want until the party conventions next August.
If McCain accepted the public money and secured the GOP nomination early next year, he would likely find himself financially strapped and relying on the Republican National Committee to run ads on his behalf for months while the Democratic nominee would operate under no such limits.
Still, Castellanos said he is optimistic that the GOP nominee -- not surprisingly, he says it will be Romney -- will have no trouble battling whoever the Democratic Party chooses.
"It's going to be a very tight race, and ultimately a Republican will still have an advantage," he said. "We're still the daddy-bear party that's going to be trusted to protect America."
