WASHINGTON - Less than four months until the US presidential election, Republican candidate Mitt Romney's campaign is beefing up on personnel and investing more cash internally as outside groups pour millions into television ads to help him counter Democratic President Barack Obama's messaging over the airwaves. Obama's spending still dwarfs Romney's June outlays , with two-thirds of it going toward advertising, but federal disclosures filed on Friday show the Republican candidate investing more in his campaign's infrastructure, something Obama did months ago, as the race has been stuck in dead heat. Obama's campaign doled out $58.1 million in June, nearly twice as much as he raised, Friday's filings showed. Facing no competition within his own party, Obama got an early start on ad buys, framing his Republican challenger negatively. Romney's campaign spent $27.5 million in June, nearly double the $15.6 million it spent in May and $12.6 million spent in April, when Romney first emerged as the presumed Republican presidential nominee. Romney spent less than half of his June haul on advertising, Reuters analysis of filings showed. The internal spending uptick was expected as campaigning heats up in earnest, but it raises concerns of burning through cash on expenses that are not direct outreach to likely or potential voters, including ads. Now, the scale appears to be leveling as Romney added 125 new paid staff members in June for a total of 272 and spent $491,088 more on their salaries for a total of $1.3 million. He also spent nearly $440,000 on office supplies, furniture, equipment and other infrastructure buildup and equipment and $9.6 million on various consulting services. Obama's campaign added 76 new paid staffers in June for a total of 779, paying them $2.8 million. One hurdle for Romney is a provision of the U.S. campaign law that prohibits some funds to be spent until he is officially nominated at the Republican convention in late August. Campaigns are allowed to accept up to $5,000 from a donor, but only half of that can be spent before the convention. Romney's campaign has reported having about $850,000 walled off to be available only for use after the convention. He also has a joint fund with the Republican National Committee that presumably has millions set off for the general election but filings so far have not clarified how much exactly. His campaign has repeatedly argued that the rule has put Romney at a disadvantage because Obama ran for re-election unopposed and he fought a bitter fight against rival Republicans. Obama, who had no Democratic opponents, has $7.8 million set aside for the general election. "We ... spent most of our primary dollars on the primary," Romney told the Toledo Blade newspaper in an interview this week. "There are just many places we can't afford to be running ads. So we are massively outspent by a President that had no primary. And we are able to both shift into general election funds after our conventions, and we will be able to be more competitive, and you'll to see more of us as that occurs." In June, Romney's campaign received $24 million in donations and had $22.5 million in cash on hand, while Obama's campaign received $28.1 million and had $97.5 million left in the bank. Obama's TV advertising spending has been effectively balanced out by Republican Super Pals, predominantly American Crossroads and the pro-Romney Restore Our Future. Obama and Priorities USA Action, the outside "super" political action committee helping the president, have spent the past several weeks pummeling Romney's past as a private equity executive and painting him as an out-of-touch rich man. Priorities earlier this week bought $4 million worth of advertising time in the battleground states of Colorado, Nevada and Florida, targeting Hispanic voters with a Spanish-language ad. Restore Our Future spent $7.2 million on ads that will run in 11 states from the end of July through August 9, while American Crossroads is spending $9.3 million on ads in nine states, defending Romney from the Democrats' attacks on his business record.
