Barack Obama Super PAC Still Limping Along Despite Endorsement

The super PAC backing President Barack Obama's reelection is still failing to raise money even after the Obama campaign endorsed the group's efforts and announced that they would send surrogates from the campaign and the administration to donor events. According to a New York Times report, "Priorities USA Action, a super PAC supporting the president’s re-election, will report $2 million in February donations, group officials said, including $1 million from the television host Bill Maher." That is a far cry from the $6.6 million the pro-Mitt Romney super PAC raised in January and far behind what other Republican-supporting super PACs are raising.

The Times article notes that Democratic donors have a variety of reasons for not chipping in:

Some potential donors are unhappy with the president's stance on climate change or other issues. Mr. Obama's backers on Wall Street are leery of their money being used for attacks on Mr. Romney's background in private equity, already the topic of millions of dollars' worth of slash-and-burn advertising this year from a super PAC supporting Newt Gingrich. Still others are not persuaded that Mr. Obama faces any real threat, with the economy improving and the Republican field in the midst of a long, bruising primary.

The two most notable Democratic mega-donors of the past, Peter Lewis and George Soros, have largely given up on electoral efforts after the tens of millions they pumped into 527 groups in 2004 failed to unseat President George W. Bush. Neither of them is willing to give much money to the Democratic super PAC efforts, according to the Times article.

With many of the traditional Democratic donors on the sidelines the super PAC is looking to reach out to "African-American business executives and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, gay donors, and longtime Obama supporters from Chicago."