Campaign funds topped $2 billion

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama and Mitt Romney shattered spending records during their 2012 campaigns, eclipsing $2 billion in fundraising, the campaigns disclosed Thursday.

Obama, who surpassed $1 billion in mid-October, added $111 million to his campaign and affiliated committees in the final two weeks of the campaign, according to a campaign official. In all, the president raised $1.1 billion for his re-election effort.

Romney’s final money push in that same period netted him more than $89.5 million – enough to nudge him past the billion-dollar mark as well. His total fundraising for the cycle was $1.01 billion.

The record-busting sums – a result of both candidates bypassing public financing to build their own flush money networks – do not include the hundreds of millions more spent by outside groups.

The finance details trickled out Thursday, the deadline for Federal Election Commission reports covering Oct. 18 through Nov. 26.

In the end, neither campaign fully exhausted its historic haul. Romney had $24.4 million still in the bank at the end of November and Obama had at least $8.8 million on hand.