WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama entered September with $88.8 million in the bank, as his campaign has continued to raise more money than Republican challenger Mitt Romney.
Boosted again by Wall Street backing, Romney emerged from his party’s nominating convention with $50.4 million to spend on his campaign, Federal Election Commission filings showed Thursday.
Obama raised $84.8 million last month, while Romney brought in $66.6 million in contributions and borrowed an additional $20 million secured by future campaign donations to pay expenditures until he became the nominee. The campaign reported owing $15 million at the end of August, though it has since paid back another $4 million.
Both candidates received transfers from their joint fundraising committees with national and state parties that can raise money in larger chunks. Obama’s total included $13.5 million from his joint committee and Romney’s figures included $39.2 million.
Obama received 30 percent of his money in donations of $200 or less, $25.1 million, while Romney raised $9.4 million, 14 percent of his contributions, in such small amounts.
The former Massachusetts governor has raised $283.6 million for his campaign. Obama has raised $441.3 million.
Romney spent $66.4 million last month, almost one-third of that — $21.5 million — on media and online advertising. His expenditures since he became a candidate totaled $233.1 million through Aug. 31. Obama has spent $354.4 million since his campaign began last year, including $83.7 million in August.
Obama took aim Thursday at Romney’s observation that 47 percent of Americans are dependent on government handouts, do not pay income taxes and will inevitably vote for Obama, suggesting it showed how Romney is out of touch with most Americans.
“When you express an attitude that half the country considers itself victims, that somehow they want to be dependent on government,” Obama said, “my thinking is, maybe you haven’t gotten around a lot.”
The president’s remarks came as Obama and Romney both campaigned in Florida, a treasure among swing states with its 29 electoral votes. While Obama concentrated on the southern part of the state, Romney campaigned in Sarasota, a Republican bastion.
Speaking at a town hall-style interview sponsored by Univision, a venue where Romney appeared Wednesday, Obama said that in his travels around the country, he was convinced that “the American people are the hardest-working people there are. And their problem is not that they’re not working hard enough or that they don’t want to work, or they’re being taxed too little or they just want to loaf around and gather government checks.”
“People want a hand up,” Obama said, “not a handout.”
Obama gave his most extensive and barbed comments on Romney’s remarks, which were videotaped in May at a Republican fundraiser in Florida. The president acknowledged that some people abused government largess, but he noted that “there are a whole bunch of millionaires who aren’t paying taxes.”
His remarks came during a lively, occasionally combative, interview in which Univision news anchors Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas pressed the president on his failure to enact immigration legislation, reports of abuses in the Fast and Furious gun-trafficking program and security at U.S. embassies in the Middle East, in light of the recent attacks.
Ramos reminded Obama that during the 2008 campaign he promised that, if elected, he would push for comprehensive immigration legislation, a central issue for Hispanic voters.
“You promised that,” he said. “With all due respect, you didn’t keep that promise.”
Obama replied that he accepted responsibility for falling short of that goal. But he put much of the blame on partisan gridlock, saying the Republican-controlled Congress had blocked his initiatives, including the DREAM Act.
At one point Obama said, “The most important lesson I’ve learned is that you can’t change Washington from the inside. You can only change it from the outside.”
Across the state in Sarasota, Romney described the president’s remark as a stark admission of political failure and futility.
“The president today threw in the white flag of surrender,” Romney said at a large outdoor rally. “He went from the president of change to the president who can’t get change.”
Romney, who has promoted himself as a business-minded outsider, told the 4,600 people gathered in a museum garden that “I can change Washington, I will change Washington. We’ll get the job done from the inside. Republicans and Democrats will come together.”
Obama’s campaign did not let the remarks go unchallenged, accusing Romney of “desperation.” Obama advisers said Obama was emphasizing the need to mobilize outside voices to push for change in Washington — a message they said he struck in campaign speeches four years ago.
“What the president said today is no different than what he has been saying for many years — that change comes from outside Washington, not inside,” said Lis Smith, a campaign spokesman. “When Americans came together and stood up to special interests, we reformed health care, cut taxes for the middle class and put in new rules for Wall Street.”
Meanwhile, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty has resigned as a national co-chairman of Romney’s presidential campaign to lobby for Wall Street. He also has ruled out a run for governor or Senate in Minnesota in 2014. Pawlenty was an early entrant in the Republican presidential campaign, but he ended his bid last year after a poor showing in the Iowa straw poll. He also was a finalist to be Romney’s running mate.
In other developments, three checks for campaign services have been stolen from Obama’s national campaign headquarters in Chicago.
Midwest press secretary Ben Finkenbinder said the checks were to be sent to vendors but “made it into the wrong hands.” He said the campaign notified police.
He said he doesn’t expect the theft to have any effect on the campaign.
He would not say how much money the checks were for or provide other details about the theft.
Information for this article was contributed by Jonathan D. Salant, Greg Giroux and Julie Bykowicz of Bloomberg News; by Mark Landler of The New York Times; and by The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 09/21/2012