Romney and RNC Raise Over $40M in April, Almost Catching Up to Obama

Mitt Romney's campaign has nearly matched President Obama's skyrocketing fund-raising efforts by bringing in over $40 million in April, largely helped by that fact that Republicans are coalescing around the party's presumed presidential nominee.

The former Massachusetts governor and the Republican National Committee will announce on Thursday that they raised $40.1 million last month, according to The New York Times. Obama and the Democratic National committee raised $43.6 million in the same month.

The April donations more than triple the $12.6 million Romney raised in March. The huge jump is a sign that Republicans are uniting behind Romney; last month, both Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich dropped out of the race. It's also the first month that the RNC partnered with the Romney Victory Fund.

Voters are tired of President Obama's broken promises, RNC chairman Reince Priebus said in a statement to The Times. Mitt Romney has the record and plan to turn our country around -- that is why he is receiving such enthusiastic support from voters across the country.

Romney national finance chairman Spencer Zwick said the campaign is pleased with the strong support we have received from Americans across the country, according to Roll Call.

The $40.1 million does not include money raised by super PACs, which have also poured millions of dollars into Obama attack ads. In another article, The New York Times reports that a group of high-profile Republican strategists proposed to launch scathing attack campaign against the president around the time of the Democratic National Convention in September, linking Obama to his former spiritual adviser, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The ads are still waiting for approval.

The plan would do exactly what John McCain would not let us do, the strategists reportedly wrote.

Wright's racially charged sermons and Obama's link to his church made him a controversial figure during the 2008 campaign. Reporters John Heilemann and Mark Halperin wrote in the 2008 election book Game Change that McCain did not want to run a Wright-themed ad against Obama while they were competing for the presidency.

Romney, however, repudiated the super PAC's plans after the New York Times article was published Thursday morning.

Capital New York's Tom McGeveran points out that the man who would fund the super PAC campaign, Joe Ricketts, also funds the growing New York local news start-up DNAinfo. The Ricketts family also owns the Chicago Cubs.

UPDATE: In a statement published by Politico, Ricketts said he is neither the author nor funder of the super PAC ad proposal.