Obama kicks off battle vs Romney with big money lead

WASHINGTON: Mitt Romney had his best fundraising month yet in March, but the presumed Republican nominee remained far behind Democratic President Barack Obama in the money game, filings with the Federal Election Commission showed on Friday.

Romney reported raising nearly $12.7 million last month, with some $10.1 million left in the bank as he sought to wrap up the nomination and focus on raising money for the costly fight to unseat Obama in the Nov. 6 election.

The deep-pocketed "Super" political action committee, or PAC, that supports Romney, Restore Our Future, brought in $8.7 million in March, with three-quarters of it remaining on hand.

Democratic PACs have struggled to match the prowess of Restore Our Future, but Obama's campaign - spared the strenuous nominating process - raised $34.8 million in March and had $104 million left in the bank at the end of the month.

Republicans and Democrats are waging a war to raise as much money as possible to fund crucial television and radio airtime and get-out-the-vote efforts, projected to total $1 billion on each side of the aisle.

The pro-Obama group Priorities USA - a Super PAC that can raise and spend unlimited funds but cannot coordinate with the campaign - reported raising $2.5 million in March. It spent only a fraction of it, $318,254, and had $5 million left on hand.

Obama's two joint funds shared with the DNC had about $6.5 million in cash on hand and sent $7.5 million to the Obama campaign and $10.5 million to the DNC.

Both the RNC and the DNC plan to spend nearly everything they raise to help their candidates.