Romney: the $100 million man

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney steps off his campaign plane at Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Va., before heading to a fundraiser on Wednesday, June 27, 2012.

/ (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

Updated 4:25 p.m. ET

(CBS News) Conservatives have ramped up their criticism of Mitt Romney's messaging in recent days, but his latest announcement may calm their nerves a bit.

The Republican National Committee's political director announced on Twitter Thursday that Romney, along with the RNC's joint fundraising committee, raised $100 million in June, easily surpassing his previous record of $76.8 million in May and topping any of President Obama's monthly fundraising totals this election cycle. (In 2008, then-candidate Obama raised $150 million in September 2008, setting the all-time monthly record.)

While the number is staggering, after Romney outraised Mr. Obama for the first time in May - $76.8 million to $60 million - the Obama campaign predicted today's news, suggesting on a conference call with reporters last month that Romney would raise $100 million - and that the Obama campaign would not match that number.

Romney held at least one fundraiser on at least 18 out of the 30 days in June. This does not include the three day retreat with major donors in Utah because according to campaign officials, that was not an actual fundraiser. We do not know the exact number of fundraisers he held because the campaign does not always alert the press when he's holding a fundraiser.

The locations of his fundraisers were spread out: California, Oregon, Washington State, Texas, Missouri, Utah, Georgia, Tennessee, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan, Arizona, Virginia, New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C.

In comparison, Mr. Obama attended 33 fundraisers in June, the most of any month since filing for re-election in April 2011.

No word yet from the Obama campaign on their June fundraising haul. Official numbers for June are due to the Federal Election Commission on July 20.

CBS News' Caroline Horn and Mark Knoller contributed to this report.

[marychgo]

We're in the mess we're in precisely BECAUSE our corporations and our tax laws have assumed, for 35 or 40 years, that deal-makers like Mitt Romney were smarter and more worthy than Americans who made things or provided services or came up with great ideas.

The 20th century U.S. prospered when a large and growing middle class prospered. But that stopped in the late '70s and early '80s, when deregulation and "trickle down" economics became the mantra of the Republican Party (and of too many DINO Democrats). When LBO artists and the management consultants like Romney stepped in to "rationalize" U.S. business, what they REALLY did was hollow out the middle class and shift income and wealth to the deal-makers. That's why we can't get unemployment below 8% and why we can't get growth above 2%: no matter how many houses they buy, deal-makers like Romney can't generate enough demand to make the economy hum!

[wfw3536]

Will the Dems stop complaining about the money Romney raised, the hypocrisy is unbelievable, as you didn't hear a word when Obama broke another one of his promises to take the government money, and McCain was a dope, so Obama could outspend him 4 to one.

[mawcm]

Smart money goes where there is the greatest opportunity for success and a return on investment. Thanks to those with money for influencing the race. Not all of us can, but we all need the same results.

[Ben37221]

Romney and his wall street friend and cook brothers are going to realize that they cannot buy the American people. Not after Romney was a pioneer in sending American jobs overseas why he made millions doing that. It is time for the American people to let him know that we don't want his brand of capitalism.

[wayneonly]

Ben, I hope you are right, but the unfortunate reality is that the voter has proven in the past (example: Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker)that they ARE fooled by the slick ads paid for by "big money" interests. Romney and the GOP will flood the airways with such ads that the voters will be so confused that they will not realize that the only thing Romney has to offer is the failed programs of "trickle down" economics and tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans and multinational corporations. We can only hope that the voters are tired of the GOP buying elections and are fed up with the "elite" 1%ers running OUR government. It is time that the American voter shows "big money" interests that OUR vote IS NOT FOR SALE.

[mawcm]

Smart money goes where there is the greatest opportunity for success and a return on investment. Thanks to those with money for influencing the race. Not all of us can, but we all need the same results.

[tvwatcher5345]

it is hard for me to feel sorry for a millionare, but i feel sorry for romney because he is toast

[esq777]

Was the $100 million all from the Koch Brothers, or did Willard "mitt" Romney withdraw from his Cayman Islands and Swiss accounts some of the money he looted from US companies ?

[TimeToEvolve]

This is an awful, disgusting system. I don't understand how a party of greedy pigs came to be. And even worse how they got so much power and money. We are in deep, deep doo doo with these scum trying to take over everything. We must stop them cold.

[TimeToEvolve]

Together we can stop the Wall Street ripoff.

[JWinATL]

TimeToEvolve: It is okay for Obama (on taxpayers' dimes) to hold the ridiculous number of fundraisers that he has, but because a Republican can outraise him, they are a "party of greedy pigs?"

[Nocults]

Many Americans — whether they are of the Tea Party or Occupy Wall Street persuasion, or somewhere in between — increasingly sense that our public institutions do not treat us as equals. Regulations benefit entrenched corporate interests, bailouts rescue financiers and automotive chiefs, politicians serve their special interest clients rather than the common weal, and the tax system — that dreaded monstrosity — destroys the income of the middle classes while somehow, someway allowing the Mitt Romneys of the world to pay just a fraction of what the rest of us pay.