Fundraising

Mitt Romney said he hoped President Obama wouldn't fundraise off an issue "as tender and sensitive" as marriage.

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Lawmakers said their decision to continue reviewing allegations against Rep. Buchanan did not indicate any ethics violation had occurred.

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President Obama, the first lady and Mitt Romney are all slated to attend high-price fundraisers over the next week.

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Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) predicted the air war between President Obama and Mitt Romney would start in earnest soon, partly because Obama has the cash right now to define the presumptive GOP nominee before he can define himself.

"Obama didn't have to run a primary so he's sitting on a stack of money so tall that a show dog couldn't jump over it," Barbour said at an event Thursday hosted by the GOP-aligned Resurgent Republic. "He can't run on his record, and so the time to really try to run down the Republican, carpet bomb him, is about to start."

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Democrats saw dollar signs in Speaker John Boehner’s comments that Republicans have “a big challenge” if they hope to keep control.

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Obama has more than 10 times the money in the bank than presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney.

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American Crossroads and Crossroads GPS have combined to raise $100 million since the beginning of 2011, a group spokesman told The Hill on Friday. 

It's a huge haulf for the GOP-affiliated outside groups that makes even most presidential fundraising look paltry by comparison, and highlights the influence the two groups are likely to have in this year's election.

The figure includes $49 million raised in the last three months, a sign that the groups should have no problem hitting their targeted goal of raising and spending $250 million on the election.

American Crossroads, the super-PAC side of the group, has nearly $25 million cash on hand, more than double the amount Mitt Romney has in the bank. Crossroads GPS, which is technically an issue advocacy group that does not have to say who its donors are, did not divulge how much money it has saved.

The groups are crucial for the GOP: Because Romney is currently at a major cash disadvantage to Obama, the outside groups will have to carry his water on television advertising until he can replenish his coffers. The two groups already went up with a major ad buy criticizing President Obama this month.

They have also spent heavily in Senate races where the GOP has a contested primary, targeting Democratic incumbents to weaken their numbers.

House Democrats outraised their GOP counterparts by about $500,000 in March, but have about $4 million less overall than Republicans at the start of the second quarter.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee raised $9.8 million in March to $9.3 million for the National Republican Congressional Committee, even though the GOP has the majority in the House. The DCCC has bested the NRCC in every month so far this year, and the committee said it was the winner in 10 of the past 15 months.

But Republicans have more than $27 million in the bank, while Democrats boast less than $23 million. Both committees have cleared out their debt.

The figures suggest that heading into the fall, House Democrats could have a slight cash advantage over Republicans, who shored up many of their most vulnerable incumbents through redistricting in 2011 and have made it more difficult for Democrats to put races in play.

Democrats need to flip about two dozen seats in November to retake control off the House.

The NRCC’s March haul included the proceeds of its annual dinner, the committee’s largest fundraising event of the year.

GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich’s biggest donor contributed $5 million with his wife to a Republican super-PAC.

Sheldon and Miriam Adelson donated the money to the Congressional Leadership Fund in February, Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings show. The Congressional Leadership Fund is a conservative super-PAC that is not earmarked to support or oppose a single candidate.

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The figures from the best month of fundraising this year bring their first-quarter total to $127 million.

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