PHILADELPHIA — For a day, the presidential contest was almost all about money - money to wage the presidential contest, that is. Mitt Romney promised to help Americans earn more, but he and President Barack Obama focused mostly on private fundraisers and big checks to fuel their 40-day drive to Election Day.
Obama courted donors in Washington on Friday, while his Republican challenger did the same in Philadelphia and Boston, both men trading swing-state rallies for fundraising in places unlikely to play a significant role in the election of the next president on Nov. 6.
Romney admitted as much during a fundraiser at Philadelphia’s exclusive Union League Club. The former Massachusetts governor said it would surprise everyone if he carried Pennsylvania, a state that hasn’t supported a Republican presidential candidate in nearly a quarter century.
“We really would shock people if early in the evening of Nov. 6 it looked like Pennsylvania was going to come our way and actually did come our way. That can happen,” Romney told about 200 donors who paid between $2,500 and $50,000 to hear his remarks.
“My priority is job creation and growing incomes,” Romney continued. “My priority is not trying to punish people who have been successful.”
The former businessman’s remarks came at the first of three private fundraisers sandwiched around a midday rally. Obama kept close to Washington with a schedule of three fundraisers of his own.
As the candidates asked for cash, their campaigns prepared for next week’s highstakes meeting on the debate stage - the first of three presidential debates and perhaps Romney’s best chance to reverse the recent Obama gains suggested by opinion polls.
Both men worked international affairs into their politicking Friday with separate telephone calls to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Obama and Netanyahu ended their call with a common pledge to stop Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon but no apparent consensus on a specific timeline to do so.
A few hours later, Romney spoke with Netanyahu, his one-time consulting colleague and a friend since the 1970s. After the call, Romney said that he does not believe that military force will have to be used to stop Iran’s uraniumenrichment program.
But money was largely the focus of the candidates’ day.
In an election where the two sides already have collected more than $1 billion, each campaign has committed millions more they haven’t yet raised to help blanket key states with television ads, drive national voter turnout operations and support teams of paid staff and consultants. Private events at places such as the Union League Club, where dress codes prohibit wrinkled clothes and huge crystal chandeliers hang from ceilings, are regular occurrences for campaigns seeking the modern-day lifeblood of presidential politics.
Romney and the Republican Party had raised about $536 million through the end of August, the most recent reporting data available. Obama and the Democratic Party had collected about $655 million through the same period.
Both camps have been spending furiously, mostly on expensive television advertising in battleground states. That doesn’t count the hundreds of millions of dollars likely to be spent by super political action committee, which can raise and spend unlimited sums. Republican-leaning super PACs and Romney’s campaign have outspent efforts for Obama’s re-election since mid-July, ad data show.
On Friday, the president was to deliver remarks at a finance event at the Capital Hilton in Washington, with tickets starting at $250 and going as high as $10,000 per couple. He then was attending a smaller fundraiser at a privateresidence before returning to the hotel for a third event.
Obama also met with advisers Friday at Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington to prepare for the debates before heading Sunday to Nevada to hold practice sessions. His campaign released a political memo Friday saying it expects Romney “to be a prepared, disciplined and aggressive debater.”
Romney, too, planned to spend much of his weekend in debate preparation, a task he began three months ago.
But he spent more time fundraising Friday than anything else.
As polls suggest his campaign is moving in the wrong direction, Romney is facing calls from within his party to spend less time with donors and more time with voters. Less than a week ago, he promised to do just that and spent three days this week campaigning across Ohio and Virginia. But he was back to fundraising Thursday night at a single Washington event that generated $5 million.
The campaign would not say how much Romney raised at the Philadelphia event, but he was expected to generate at least $7 million at two Boston fundraisers Friday evening. The two-day total was expected to exceed $13 million.
Information for this article was contributed by Jack Gillum of The Associated Press and by Philip Rucker of The Washington Post.
Front Section, Pages 2 on 09/29/2012