Romney fundraising cuts Obama advantage

WASHINGTON -- Mitt Romney and his Republican Party raised $40 million in April, an unexpectedly strong haul in the first month of the general campaign that illustrates enthusiasm within the GOP and threatens President Barack Obama's overwhelming cash advantage.

Since becoming the presumptive presidential nominee, Romney has devoted most of his time to privately courting donors to prepare for what may be the most expensive campaign in history.

His focus appears to be paying off. In just one month, Obama's 10-to-1 cash advantage has shrunk to 2-to-1, partly because the Republican National Committee is helping Romney now. The numbers may offer the best evidence to date that weary Republican donors who spent months on the sidelines are finally opening their wallets for Romney after a long and bitter primary.

"Fundraising is going extremely well," said Woody Johnson, a Romney fundraiser and New York Jets owner. "This is a very motivated group of people who are giving to this campaign."

Romney, meanwhile, swiftly and firmly distanced himself from a group exploring plans to target Obama's relationship with a controversial former pastor.

He pushed back against a proposal being weighed by a conservative super PAC, Ending Spending Action Fund, to run a $10 million ad campaign drawing attention to racially provocative sermons the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. delivered at a church Obama attended in Chicago. With super PACS operating under significantly looser campaign finance restrictions, there was no guarantee Romney's words would be heeded by other groups eager to make Wright and, by extension, race, a factor in the campaign.

"I want to make it very clear: I repudiate that effort," Romney told reporters after a campaign stop in Florida.

The former Massachusetts governor is putting the cash infusion to use quickly. He announced plans yesterday to go on the air soon with his first TV ads of the general campaign, a positive commercial intended to introduce him to voters.

Romney's April fundraising figures -- a sharp increase from March, when he pulled in just $12.5 million while fending off primary opponents -- show that he and the Republican National Committee together raised nearly as much money as the president and the Democratic National Committee, which together brought in $43.6 million last month.