Romney raised $14.2 million in third quarter, but spent big cash

Mitt Romney raised $14.2 million between July and September, bringing his overall total raised for his Republican presidential bid to more than $32 million.

But the former Massachusetts governor also spent a lot of cash. According to his campaign, he ended the third fundraising quarter with roughly $14.7 million in the bank.

That's slightly less than the $15 million Rick Perry's campaign says he has in the bank. The Texas governor raised $17 million in the third quarter, according to his campaign.

Romney's spending habits are slightly surprising, in part because the ex-governor spent most of the summer laying low.

He kept his public campaigning at a minimum, allocating most of his time to small events timed around fundraising stops around the country. And so far, he hasn't participated in other 2012 events that tend to suck up campaign resources, including straw polls in Iowa, Florida and Michigan.

His campaign offered no details on where that money was spent, but the details should be clarified in his campaign finance report, which is due at the Federal Election Commission by Oct. 15th.

Not unlike President Obama's campaign, Romney sought to play up his number of small donors as a sign of grassroots momentum. According to his campaign, 55,947 individuals contributed to Romney in the third quarter—a 73 percent increase in donors compared to his fundraising between April and June. Eighty-three percent of donations were less than $250, per the Romney campaign.

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