Republicans are rapidly eroding the huge funding advantage that propelled Barack Obama into the White House, with wealthy donors flooding new conservative campaign groups with cash ahead of the presidential election in November.
The so-called super-Pac backing Mitt Romney, the Republican frontrunner for the 2012 nomination, raised $30m last year, according to filings with the Federal Election Commission published on Wednesday, with ten individuals and corporations donating $1m each.
Super-Pacs have proliferated in the wake of a 2010 Supreme Court decision allowing political action committees to take unlimited donations from companies and spend them at any time before polling day, as long as they do not co-ordinate with the candidates themselves.