President Obama’s campaign operatives are sounding the alarms about Mitt Romney’s March fundraising haul — almost equal to Mr. Obama’s during the same month.
Bill Burton, who heads the pro-Obama super PAC Priorities USA Action, sent an email to supporters Thursday titled “Hate and Money,” alerting them to Mr. Romney’s fundraising strength, pointing out that the Republican’s ability to pull in $40.1 million compared to the president’s $43 million last month requires “immediate attention.”
“Keep in mind, he didn’t really become the presumptive nominee until the middle of the month,” Mr. Burton wrote in the email. “And worth noting, Romney aides say they expect their campaign to out-raise the president’s.”
Mr. Burton also pointed to a report in the New York Times about a secret $10 million GOP super PAC plan to win the election crafted by prominent Republican strategists and commissioned by billionaire Joe Ricketts, the founder of the brokerage firm TD Ameritrade.
The plan would “do exactly what John McCain would not let us do,” according to the report, including running commercials linking Mr. Obama to his former spiritual adviser, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr., whose highly charged race-related sermons made him a lightening rod in the 2008 campaign.
“There is an ocean of Republican money coming right at President Obama — some of it dedicated to abject slime. Now is the time to fight back,” Mr. Burton writes, ending the email by asking for a contribution to his super PAC.
