Romney Sure Can Spend Money

Mitt Romney has raised a lot of money, but he has spent even more.

From Marc Ambinder...

So now we know why ex-MA Gov. Mitt Romney wrote himself a "nightmare" $5M check at the end of the second quarter: he spent more than five million more than he raised. Put together, Romney's burn through about 99% of his receipts.

Romney's campaign filed its second quarter report with the FEC today. Friday.

Romney aides insist that the campaign is on budget, and judging by the size of the check he wrote, Romney has promised to fill in the gap between receipts and expenses.

But raising money is tougher in the third quarter, and it will especially hard if Romney stays low in the national polls. It's unclear whether Romney can sustain the pace he's achieved: nearly $5M in television advertisements, $2.3M in salaries and insurance, and $1M in donor prospecting and list rental.

Romney still has about $12 million cash on hand, however we have a long time until people actually start voting. Romney should pull out his veto pen and cut some of the TV ads in Iowa the next month or so. They accomplished what they wanted with by getting his name out there and catapulting him to the top of the Iowa polls. He might want to continue the ads through the Ames Straw Poll then pull the ads and come out with new ones in October.