Campaign cost Romney more than $42M

An old saying about throwing good money after bad is "in for a penny, in for a pound." But in the case of Mitt Romney, it could now be rewritten, "in for $35 million, also in for $42 million."

He spent an extra $6.95 million out of his own pocket in January as he geared up for big primary showdowns on Super Tuesday, Feb. 5, according to new campaign disclosure forms. That was about 41 percent of the $16.7 million total that he raised that month.

Of course, Romney did poorly on Super Tuesday and ended up suspending his campaign two days later.

With that January spending, Romney ended up using a total of $42.3 million of his own money on his campaign through Jan. 31.

That was 40 percent of the $106.8 million total he had raised through Jan. 31 — but he had not spent all that money.

Forms show that Romney spent $98 million through that date. That means his campaign spent about $323,000 per delegate for the 303 delegates that The Associated Press reported he had won. And from out of his own pocket, Romney spent $139,604 per delegate in the lost cause.

Utahns had given the second-most money of any state — $6.05 million — to Romney, former head of the 2002 Olympics. That was behind only the $9.18 million donated by Californians, but California has 14 times more residents than Utah.

Through Jan. 31, Romney had spent more than twice as much nationally as now-presumptive GOP nominee John McCain — who had spent only $48.4 million.

However, Democrats Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton had outspent Romney. Obama had spent $115.6 million (and raised $140 million), and Clinton had spent $108.9 million (and raised $138 million).

Utahns donated $7.6 million to presidential candidates through Jan. 31 — and Romney collected 80 percent of it himself.

McCain finished only fifth in fundraising in Utah with $183,427. Ahead of him were Romney, $6.05 million; Clinton, $372,782; Obama, $328,516; and Rudy Giuliani, $189,300.

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E-mail: lee@desnews.com

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