WASHINGTON — The deadline for filing quarterly presidential fundraising reports closed Thursday, with officials from nearly every campaign predicting a relatively low dollar total compared with the historic highs at this time in the 2008 campaign cycle.
Campaign aides were engaged in the traditional ritual of spinning their tally as a show of firm support, blaming fundraising challenges on circumstances outside their control and certainly not a reflection on their candidate.
Still, the slumping tally was notable in the camp of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the GOP front-runner in polls and fundraising. Romney aides said he will report raising only about $20 million, less than the up to $50 million anticipated by supporters a few months ago — and well below the $44 million he reported by this point in 2007 in his first presidential bid.
President Barack Obama was aiming toward a $60 million total, some of it raised jointly with the Democratic National Committee. At this point in 2007, both he and Hillary Rodham Clinton reported raising close to that amount for their own campaigns.
Candidates are required to file with the Federal Elections Commission reports of money received by midnight Thursday. Campaign receipts and disbursements will be publicly released July 15.
Does the comparatively low level of fundraising this year suggest an end to the ever-escalating cost of presidential campaigns? Not likely.
“The cumulative amount of money will be lower this quarter,” said Michael Malbin, an expert at the Campaign Finance Institute. “But the difference is mostly due to the late start of the campaign.”
Candidate fundraising is on a different schedule this year, in part because of uncertainty over whether the GOP field is complete. Added disincentives were a poor economy, a lack of enthusiasm for many of the candidates and the competing demands of new outside campaign-related groups.
Malbin and other experts predict that by the end of the election cycle, another spending record will have been set, once the cash flowing into the outside groups is included.
