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When it comes to campaign cash, Wall Street pulls a u-turn favoring Romney over Obama for 2012

Natalie Gonnella
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A year after President Obama signed into law the most extensive financial regulations since the 1930's, Wall Street's doing a 180 when it comes to political contributions, favoring Romney over Obama when it comes to campaign cash for 2012.

As Republicans work to roll back the Dodd-Frank Act, according to Bloomberg:

Employees of Goldman Sachs Group gave Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney $238,250 in the last three months, more than workers at any other company, according to a computer-assisted analysis of Federal Election Commission data. Obama took in $10,113.

Four years ago, employees of New York-based Goldman gave $994,795 to Obama and $234,275 to Romney, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based research group. For both candidates, it was more than any other company’s employees.

In addition, Romney took in $2.1 million from donors reporting a New York state address, where the financial industry is headquartered, FEC data shows. Obama raised $1.3 million during the same period. For the 2008 election, Obama raised $50.5 million in the state; Romney raised $2.8 million, according to the center.

Mitt Romney currently holds the lead in the fundraising fight among GOP contenders, adding more than $18.4 million to his campaign from April - June, outpacing even his closest rival Michele Bachmann by a 3:1 margin. 

Gingrich's latest gaffe: $451,946 in private jet bills

Natalie Gonnella
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A White House bid is an expensive undertaking, especially if you're a presidential hopeful who has a penchant for private planes.

According to the The Daily Caller's Matt Lewis:

FEC reports released Friday show that former Speaker Newt Gingrich’s campaign has $1,030,627.82 in debt.

He blames his consultants who resigned en masse last month. But the Gingrich campaign’s FEC report shows that nearly half of the debt comes from charting private airplanes. More specifically, the campaign owes $451,946.00 to Moby Dick Airways LTD.

DEBTS	SUM
5EI LLC	14,070.00
AAMP	7,682.76
Airnet	49.94
Alexander & MacGregor Inc.	31,286.52
Automated Print INC.	1,085.40
Chattahoochee Consulting LLC	12,589.27
CMDI	30,716.10
Colortree	2,418.00
Cushman Enterprises Inc.	5,540.00
Data Management Inc.	6,717.32
Fedex	831.30
GF Strategies LLC	2,044.00
Gingrich, Newt	47,005.00
High Tech Win LLC	212,059.91
Huckaby Davis Lisker	5,000.00
Integram	27,980.05
Jeanne Minnix Graphic Design Inc.	640.00
Junttila Studios Inc.	432.00
Law Group Inc.	12,115.00
McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP	101,143.53
Moby Dick Airways LTD	451,946.00
Norway Hill Associates Inc.	20,616.80
Premiere Global Services	669.86
Root, Jordan	1,875.00
Southwest Publishing	15,350.03
Starboard Communications Inc.	1,542.69
Stewart, Amanda	3,242.64
The Stoneridge Group LLC	1,950.00
Thomas, Jody	10,068.00
Tyler, Rick	1,666.66
Vaughan, Elizabeth	294.04

Yet another lesson Gingrich appears to be learning the hard way.

RNC unraveling as Steele's top aide resigns

Ryan Streeter

RNC political director Gentry Collins has issued a letter spelling out why he is resigning from the RNC. The letter is now in circulation and available here. It is a detailed, data-driven indictment of Chairman Michael Steele's leadership. He writes:

For the 2010 election year itself, RNC cash transfers to state parties for political purposes were just $13.1 million—less than a quarter of the $56.7 million cash transfers to state parties in 2006 for political purposes. And in 2010, the RNC went $15 million into debt to fund these programs.

He continues:

In the previous two non-presidential cycles, the RNC carried over $4.8 million and $3.1 million respectively in cash reserve balances into the presidential cycles. In stark contrast, we enter the 2012 presidential cycle with 100% of the RNC’s $15 million in lines of credit tapped out, and unpaid bills likely to add millions to that debt.

Collins goes on to say that he believes the GOP could have picked up 2 additional Senate seats and 3 governorships if the RNC had its fundraising act together. He attributes the lackluster finances, in part, to the fact that RNC's fundraising costs approached 70 cents on the dollar, compared to the more historical 50 cents. Expensive, and under-performing.

The letter is clearly timed to coincide with the ramp-up to the race for a new RNC leader, which Natalie Gonnella summarized this morning on The Republican. 

What is perhaps most interesting is that finance issues Collins cites are a clear statement about where the center of party gravity is these days: NOT at the RNC.  

The Center for Responsive Politics reports that Republicans out-raised Democrats $535,600,000 to $460,700,000 among individuals in the mid-terms. And, as Tim Carney notes today, Democrats raised considerably more from PACs, especially in the Senate.

The fact that the GOP won on Nov. 2 so resoundingly, with an impressive amount in individual donations, shows how irrelevant the RNC was to the whole victory.