John McCain Raises $27 Million In July

John McCain raised $27 million in July, his largest one-month fundraising haul since clinching the Republican presidential nomination, while the Republican National Committee brought in nearly $26 million.

The GOP nominee-in-waiting had $21 million available to spend as August began, while the national party began the month with $75 million to compete with the Democrats.

Republicans are looking to even out the financial playing field in this campaign, having trailed Democrats in overall fundraising for most of the election cycle. The disparity reflects the enthusiasm among Democrats that's lacking among the GOP.

McCain has agreed to accept some $84 million in public financing for the general election, the only money he can spend after formally accepting his party's nomination at the convention in early September. He essentially needs to drain down his campaign bank account this month.

That explains, for example, why he can afford to spend some $6 million to run TV advertising during the Olympics this month, and has been able to blanket 11 battleground states with multimillion dollars worth of commercials since first going up on the air in earnest in June.

Democrat Barack Obama has decided to forgo public financing for the general election, relying instead on his significant fundraising. (Liz Sidoti, AP)