Romney raises $170 million in September

Republican presidential challenger Mitt Romney and his allies raised $170.5 million in September, the campaign said on Monday, falling just short of the 2012 fundraising record set last month by Democratic rival President Barack Obama.

Obama and the Democratic National Committee already had reported raising $181 million in September, the best mark so far in the most expensive presidential election campaign in U.S. history.

September was the second consecutive month in which the Democrats outraised Romney’s team after several months in which the Republicans had led the way in fundraising.

Republicans began October with $191.2 million in cash on hand, the Romney campaign said on Monday.

Obama and the Democratic National Committee did not say how much cash they had on hand at the end of September.

Romney’s campaign has said that donations kicked up after the Republican candidate delivered a strong performance against Obama in the first presidential debate on October 3 that helped him gain on the incumbent in the polls just weeks ahead of the November 6 election.

Obama has since regained a slim lead in the tight race. The Reuters/Ipsos daily tracking poll on Monday showed him at 47 percent compared with Romney’s 45 percent.

“Americans can’t afford four more years like the last four,” Spencer Zwick, Romney’s finance chairman, said in a statement.