Mitt Romney's presidential campaign announced on Thursday that it had ended the month of February with roughly $7.3 million, all without the former Massachusetts governor having to make a personal loan or contribution to his campaign.
The number is welcome news for Romney backers, who fretted that the candidate was running out of cash after spending heavily in January. But in February, he raised $11.5 million in primary funds. And it appears that small donors (those giving less than $250) are starting to pick up. Since the beginning of the campaign, 83 percent of all donations have been through these types of donors -- though in terms of actual cash, that amounts to about 12.4 percent of what Romney has raised.
But not all news was positive on the campaign finance front. Romney's campaign is still spending more than it is taking in. At the end of January it had $7.7 million cash on hand, meaning that it spent $11.9 million throughout February. That amounts to about $410,300 a day -- a far better burn rate than the $603,000 or so per day that Romney was spending in January, but still relatively high. The $7.3 million that the campaign has left is likely more than any other GOP candidate has on hand. But with the primary campaign not abetting, the figure is hardly overwhelming.
In announcing the cash on hand figure Thursday morning, the Romney campaign made sure that reporters knew he hadn't dipped into his vast personal wealth. But in doing so, they may have offered an inadvertent Freudian slip.
"Mitt Romney has not made any personal loans or contributions to the campaign," the email read.