Priorities USA Action

By The Hill Staff - 05/21/12 07:45 PM ET

President Obama attracted headlines in February when he reversed his stance on super-PACs.

The president, who had long been a critic of outside groups playing major roles in campaigns, excused his about-face by arguing that Democrats had to fight fire with fire.

The White House stresses that it still supports changing the law to undo the effects of the Supreme Court’s decision on campaign finance reform in the Citizens United case. But lacking the votes to pass such legislation, Team Obama gave the green light to donors to ladle money into the coffers of left-leaning super-PACs.

Many believed that, in consequence, the war chest of an outside group backing the president would soon be brimming.

It didn’t happen.

In April, Priorities USA Action collected only $1.6 million, down from its high of $2.5 million in March.

It should be noted that Restore Our Future, a pro-Mitt Romney super-PAC, also had disappointing numbers last month. But it greatly outpaced Priorities; Restore’s drop was from $8.7 million in March to $4.6 million in April.

Democrats are clearly winning the overall money race, for Obama and the Democratic National Committee are outpacing Romney and the Republican National Committee.

But the gap is narrowing, as evidenced by the fundraising prowess of Republican super-PACs. This worries Democratic operatives, including James Carville, who warned the left to wake up and smell the possibility of defeat.

Liberal comedian Bill Maher, who has a political talk show on HBO, earlier this year gave Priorities USA

$1 million.

The denizens of Tinseltown have, however, declined so far to follow Maher’s lead. Many celebrities have donated to the president’s reelection campaign, but far fewer have dug deep into their pockets to give mega-checks to Obama’s super-PAC.

Maybe that will change. Some opine that Obama’s recent embrace of same-sex marriage will open the wallets of gay activists who had been frustrated with the president’s “evolving” views on the matter.

But the election is only 168 days away, and so far, they’re not feeling the love over at Priorities USA.