Romney, under-funded rivals in hunt for cash

WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney and his under-funded opponents are taking advantage of a weeklong lull in the Republican presidential nomination fight — no debate or primary is slated — to raise the money needed to carry out Super Tuesday strategies and compete in states beyond.

Romney is the wealthiest candidate in the race with a big bank account and a personal fortune he could tap. Yet, even he is spending the bulk of this quiet campaign week largely courting donors from California to New York as he looks to ensure that he can swamp his opponents on the TV airwaves in upcoming contests.

The quest is more urgent for his top two challengers — Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich — as they battle to emerge as the top alternative to Romney. Both have spent the entire campaign operating on shoestring budgets and working to capitalize on momentum from past victories. Now, with more than one state voting on a given day, they must figure out how to pay for get-out-the-vote efforts and TV ads in multiple states at once, far from an easy feat.

"It's all about money," Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond said, describing the former House speaker's upcoming week.

A look at the upcoming primary calendar shows why.

There are 10 states with contests on March 6 — Super Tuesday. A full week's worth of ads running at a heavy level in every one of those states would cost about $5 million by industry estimates. And the stakes are higher than ever: There are 419 delegates to the Republican National Convention that will be selected that day, more than all those available in previous contests combined.

All the candidates, to be sure, are hoping that outside support from allied political action committees will materialize in upcoming states as it has before.

The deep-pocked Restore Our Future super PAC, run by former Romney aides and funded in part by associates from the candidate's former private equity company, has signaled that it plans to continue bankrolling TV ads attacking both Santorum and Gingrich. Republicans say a fresh round of ads by this group is imminent.

But there's no guarantee that the Red, White and Blue Fund — its chief donor is Foster Friess — will go on the air to help Santorum or that Winning Our Future — it's largely bankrolled by casino titan Sheldon Adelson's family — will rush in again to assist Gingrich.

So that mean both candidates have little choice but to try to fill their own campaign coffers.