Obama edges Romney in August fundraising, big boost in poll

US President Barack Obama beat out Republican challenger Mitt Romney in fundraising for their election war chests last month, data released by the campaigns showed Monday, DPA reported.

Obama also got a major boost in a CNN poll released Monday that showed him with a six-point lead, his largest since February. The opinion poll shows 52 per cent of likely voters support the president compared to 46 per cent for Romney.

The boost comes after the Democratic National Convention last week. The official nomination of each party's candidate at their conventions typically gives the candidate a bump in polls of about 5 percentage points, pollster Gallup said ahead of the conventions. Romney however did not benefit from a post-convention boost, which often proves to be short-lived.

Obama's campaign and the Democratic National Committee raised 114 million dollars in August, campaign manager Jim Messina said.

Romney's team brought in 111.6 million dollars in the same time period, it said in a statement.

The Republican candidate had 168.5 million dollars cash on hand; the Obama campaign did not provide a figure for how much cash it had.

The Romney campaign has led in fundraising for the last three months in what looks to be among the most expensive elections in US history.

The candidates are locked in a tight race ahead of November 6 elections. Before the CNN poll a Rasmussen poll released Saturday showed Obama with a 46 per cent lead over Romney with 44 per cent support, while pollster Gallup showed 48 per cent for Obama to 45 per cent for Romney.


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