PHILIP ELLIOTT
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans’ official effort to retake the Senate raised a record $15.5 million in September — roughly four times its average monthly haul this cycle — but did not disclose Tuesday just how much the committee spent last month or how much it had saved for the final weeks of an already bruising campaign.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee’s summary of September finances included only how much it had raised and suggestions that much of it came from online donors. The full report is not due until Oct. 20 and the committee declined to release detailed figures. But the sum is a sharp turnaround from lackluster fundraising totals.
“After the 2012 election, there were a lot of people who were feeling donor fatigue because it was a tough election, both at the presidential level and the Senate level,” said Sen. Rob Portman, the Ohio Republican who leads the committee’s fundraising efforts.
Republicans failed to win the Senate in 2012 and Republican nominee Mitt Romney fell short in his bid to oust President Barack Obama.
“Those folks are now back,” Portman said of those donors during a phone interview from North Carolina. “We have momentum going our way.”
The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee said its figures were not yet ready for release.
Senate Republicans have consistently been outraised by the Democrats. Heading into September, the NRSC raised an average of $4.1 million each month, which the DSCC raised about $6.6 million.
Senate Republicans said the sudden spike in fundraising suggests optimism among rank-and-file party members that the odds are improving that they might pick up the net six seats needed to tip the balance of power in to the GOP.
“More and more people are coming to that conclusion,” Portman said, adding that a potential shift in party control has made fundraising easier.
Without September’s figures, the NRSC raised about $82 million to the DSCC’s almost $112 million.
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