WASHINGTON — For the third straight month, President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party significantly trailed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and the Republican Party in fundraising.
Romney's campaign yesterday reported a July haul of more than $101 million with the Republican National Committee, compared to the $75 million that Obama's campaign said it had brought in with the Democratic National Committee.
Romney also raised more cash than Obama in May and June.
The July fundraising reports came as Obama was set to raise at least $2.5 million at a pair of events in Connecticut, with a Hollywood touch. One fundraiser was scheduled at the home of film mogul Harvey Weinstein. The hosts include actresses Anne Hathaway, Joanne Woodward and writer Aaron Sorkin.
Romney's level of fundraising has prompted Obama, known for his prodigious fundraising, to redouble his efforts.
GOP-aligned super PACs also are raising and spending tens of millions of dollars to defeat Obama on Nov. 6.
The candidates are locked in a tight White House contest three months before Election Day.
Obama was focused on White House business before an evening departure for Connecticut.
Romney was taking another day off the campaign trail. He was spending it in meetings at his vacation home in Wolfeboro, N.H., where he went to the grocery store and emerged pushing a shopping cart filled with soda, bottled water, fresh corn and other items. Romney also did some shopping at a drugstore and a hardware store.
Looming large for Romney is his decision on a running mate. He is expected to name a candidate before the Republican National Convention opens later this month in Tampa, Fla.
Romney's campaign announced that he will spend Saturday through Aug. 14 campaigning by bus through a different state each day. The trip opens in Virginia, hits North Carolina and Florida and ends next Tuesday in Ohio.
Virginia's governor and Ohio's Republican U.S. senator are talked about as potential running mates.
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