Obama, Romney broke fundraising records

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- Democrat Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney each raised more than $1 billion in the 2012 U.S. presidential election race, federal records show.

Final Federal Election Commission filings indicated President Obama raised $1.1 billion in his re-election effort and Romney garnered $1.01 billion, both records, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

The huge totals don't include the hundreds of millions of dollars spent by outside groups.

Obama, who topped $1 billion by mid-October, added $111 million to his campaign and affiliated committees in the final 2 1/2 weeks of the campaign.

In that same period, Romney raised more than $89.5 million, also enough to push him over the billion-dollar mark.

Outside groups raked in last-minute cash as well. Restore Our Future, a super PAC supporting Romney, brought in $22.1 million, nearly half from Las Vegas casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Miriam. The Adelsons contributed about $30 million to the pro-Romney group during the election.

Priorities USA Action, the Obama-supporting super PAC, also received several multimillion dollar donations as the campaign drew to a close, the Times said. Two hedge fund executives, James H. Simons and Henry Laufer of Renaissance Technologies, each contributed $1.5 million. Priorities USA also received $3.9 million from unions in the last weeks of the campaign.

The Times said Romney reported having $24.4 million cash on hand at the end of November and Obama reported having more than $14 million.