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The importance of high-dollar donors underscores the more than 100 fundraising events Romney has held since earlier this spring, in tony locales like Park City, Utah; Aspen, Colo.; and the Hamptons. Just this weekend, an evening dinner at the ocean-front Hamptons estate of billionaire industrialist David Koch cost $50,000 per person or $75,000 per couple. Obama's campaign hosts glitzy campaign events of its own, more recently at actor George Clooney's mansion in California. But Romney's fundraising surge underscores how wealthy donors are creating a financial challenge for Obama
-- who once assailed the influence of corporate money and super PACs. Republican-aligned super PACs, including Restore Our Future and American Crossroads, plan to spend hundreds of millions of dollars this election to defeat Obama. While Obama has super PACs working in his favor, they haven't harnessed the large sums of money that the pro-Romney groups have been able to do so far. As a result, Obama's campaign has said repeatedly and publicly that the president could be the first incumbent to be out-raised by his challenger. That message has come lately in the form of online fundraising pleas, asking supporters for small donations
-- usually $3 -- to help push back against Romney. "We exceeded expectations -- more than 706,000 people like you stepped up and pitched in for a grand total of $71 million raised for this campaign and the Democratic Party," said Ann Marie Habershaw, the Obama campaign's chief operating officer. "Bad news? We still got beat," she said. "Handily."
[Associated
Press;
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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