Senior White House adviser David Plouffe on Tuesday accused wealthy Mitt Romney supporters of trying to "purchase the White House," one day after the presumptive GOP nominee announced a $106 million June fundraising haul that stunned the Obama campaign.
“You’ve got a few very wealthy people lining up trying to purchase the White House for Mr. Romney,” said Plouffe on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “We’re going to have to have everybody out there who wants the president to continue to a second term to step up and help the campaign.”
After seeing Romney and the Republican National Committee (RNC) outpace Obama for two straight months, the president’s campaign is pressuring donors to intensify their fundraising efforts.
Romney outraised Obama by $35 million in June and $17 million in May, the first two months after the GOP candidate shifted his focus from the primaries to the general election.
On Monday, an email from the Obama campaign sharply warned supporters that “we could lose if this continues.”
“We had our best fundraising month yet, and we still fell about $35 million short. We can win while being outspent — but we need to keep it close,” said Ann Marie Habershaw, the campaign’s chief operating officer.
Asked about the email, Plouffe said the campaign had “assumed all along that Gov. Romney and the RNC would outraise us,” but added that Obama’s team was increasingly concerned about the gap in super-PAC contributions.
“The real new dynamic in this race is obviously the super-PACs, and we have three or four Republican super-PACs at any time spending tens of millions of dollars aimed at the president. So that’s what’s really new in this election cycle,” Plouffe said.
“Money matters in politics. We’re running a great campaign, we’ve got millions of volunteers out there registering voters, donating $25 or $50, but you’ve got to have enough money to run a one-year campaign and our big concern are these super-PACs.”
