In late June, his fundraising machine struggling, President Barack Obama darkly declared to supporters, “I will be outspent.” 
 
 So much for that: As the presidential election reached its climax, Obama’s campaign spending dwarfed that of Romney’s campaign, outspending its Republican counterpart by more than $71 million between Oct. 18 and Election Day, according to documents filed Thursday night with the Federal Election Commission. 
 
 Text Size - 
 
 + 
 
 reset 
 
 Such spending, coupled with the late, but heavy support from friendly super PACs and union groups, boosted Obama’s fortunes in key swing states such as Florida, Virginia, Iowa, New Hampshire, Colorado, Nevada and Ohio, all of which he won. 
 
 (PHOTOS: Best photos of the 2012 campaign) 
 
 For perspective, the $176.4 million Obama’s campaign spent during this brief but critical period could run all city government operations in Dayton, Ohio, for more than a year. 
 
 As it was, the bulk of Obama’s money went toward campaign advertisements, production and consulting — more than $85 million from Oct. 18 to Nov. 26, according to the campaign’s filings. Online advertising accounted for another $22.66 million in spending. 
 
 Travel ($9.6 million) and payroll ($4.44 million) also constituted major 11th hour expenses for the campaign. 
 
 The $111 million raised by Obama’s committees and the Democratic National Committee in the weeks immediately before and after the election also boosted their collective fundraising total to more than $1.12 billion, POLITICO’s calculations of federal filings indicate. Obama’s campaign alone raised more than $88 million of that from Oct. 18 to Nov. 26. 
 
 Romney’s committees and the Republican National Committee raised about $86 million during the same period, federal records show. 
 
 As of Nov. 26, Obama’s campaign committee had $5.4 million remaining in its account versus $7.22 million in debt, his filing shows. 
 
 This means his committee will likely continue fundraising even though Obama has no further campaigns to run. 
 
 Kenneth P. Vogel contributed to this report. 

 Once-bedraggled, pro-Barack Obama super PAC Priorities USA Action saved its best fundraising efforts for last, reaping riches from liberal donors and labor unions during the presidential election’s final three weeks. 
 
 Investor Henry Laufer and Renaissance Technologies Chairman James Simons each gave Priorities USA Action $1.5 million between Oct. 18 and Election Day, federal documents filed with the Federal Election Commission on Thursday night show. 
 
 Text Size - 
 
 + 
 
 reset 
 
 Media mogul Fred Eychaner, law firm chief Steve Mostyn and Renaissance Technologies Chief Executive Stephen Robert each added $1 million, helping Priorities USA Action raise nearly $15.2 million for the period as it pummeled Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney with relentless negative advertisements during the campaign’s final days. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: Obama outspent Romney in final days) 
 
 Union entities also ponied up serious eleventh-hour cash, including the Laborers International Union of North America ($1 million on Nov. 5), International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers ($500,000) and the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners’s Working for Working Americans super PAC ($500,000). 
 
 In all, Priorities USA Action spent nearly $21 million between Oct. 18 and Nov. 26 while ending the period with $4.33 million cash on hand and no debt. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: Obama, Romney both toppped $1 billion) 
 
 While most of the money it spent in late October and early November funded anti-Romney ads, the super PAC did spend six-figure amounts on research and media strategy services, its report indicates. 
 
 Such spending is remarkable considering Priorities USA Action began the year destitute, barely raising any money at all as Democrats, largely on principle, shunned supporting super PACs, which by law may raise and spend unlimited amounts of money to promote or attack candidates. 
 
 (PHOTOS: 2012 mega donors) 
 
 But Obama in February gave tacit approval to his funders backing Priorities USA Action, which is run by two of his former White House staffers, Bill Burton and Sean Sweeney. 
 
 From that point forward, cash slowly began to roll in, even if Priorities USA Action never competed dollar for dollar with its main Republican super PAC counterparts, pro-Romney Restore Our Future and Karl Rove-backed American Crossroads. In August, it had raised $10.13 million, and in September, it raised $15.2 million, adding $13 million more during the first 17 days of October, its federal reports show. 

 In late June, his fundraising machine struggling, President Barack Obama darkly declared to supporters, “I will be outspent.” 
 
 So much for that: As the presidential election reached its climax, Obama’s campaign spending dwarfed that of Romney’s campaign, outspending its Republican counterpart by more than $71 million between Oct. 18 and Election Day, according to documents filed Thursday night with the Federal Election Commission. 
 
 Text Size - 
 
 + 
 
 reset 
 
 Such spending, coupled with the late, but heavy support from friendly super PACs and union groups, boosted Obama’s fortunes in key swing states such as Florida, Virginia, Iowa, New Hampshire, Colorado, Nevada and Ohio, all of which he won. 
 
 (PHOTOS: Best photos of the 2012 campaign) 
 
 For perspective, the $176.4 million Obama’s campaign spent during this brief but critical period could run all city government operations in Dayton, Ohio, for more than a year. 
 
 As it was, the bulk of Obama’s money went toward campaign advertisements, production and consulting — more than $85 million from Oct. 18 to Nov. 26, according to the campaign’s filings. Online advertising accounted for another $22.66 million in spending. 
 
 Travel ($9.6 million) and payroll ($4.44 million) also constituted major 11th hour expenses for the campaign. 
 
 The $111 million raised by Obama’s committees and the Democratic National Committee in the weeks immediately before and after the election also boosted their collective fundraising total to more than $1.12 billion, POLITICO’s calculations of federal filings indicate. Obama’s campaign alone raised more than $88 million of that from Oct. 18 to Nov. 26. 
 
 Romney’s committees and the Republican National Committee raised about $86 million during the same period, federal records show. 
 
 As of Nov. 26, Obama’s campaign committee had $5.4 million remaining in its account versus $7.22 million in debt, his filing shows. 
 
 This means his committee will likely continue fundraising even though Obama has no further campaigns to run. 
 
 Kenneth P. Vogel contributed to this report. 

 Obama: $1.123 billion vs. Romney: $1.019 billion. 
 
 That’s the final fundraising tally in the most expensive presidential election ever, according to reports filed Thursday with the Federal Election Commission by the rival campaigns and party committees. 
 
 Text Size - 
 
 + 
 
 reset 2012’s high-end fundraisers 
 
 And that doesn’t include an explosion of late advertising funded by last-minute checks from mega-donors like Las Vegas casino owner Sheldon Adelson and Chicago media mogul Fred Eychaner, whose emergence as political forces may be the enduring legacy of 2012. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: Adelson gave another $10M to Romney super PAC) 
 
 Adelson and his wife gave $39.7 million to GOP-allied super PACs in the campaign’s final weeks to bring their total disclosed contributions to almost $90 million, while Eychaner gave $2 million, bringing his total to $14 million. 
 
 Thursday’s filings lay bare those donations and other jaw-dropping financial details of the first modern presidential campaign in which donors could give unlimited contributions for political ads and in which both major party candidates declined to participate in a Watergate-era public financing system designed to limit fundraising. The reports also show how the two candidates and their allies navigated the new big-money system using divergent strategies until the bitter end. 
 
 (PHOTOS: 2012 mega-donors) 
 
 President Barack Obama’s campaign relied on smaller donors to fuel a robust ground game and summer advertising seeking to define Republican rival Mitt Romney, and then widened its fundraising advantage as the campaign reached its apex. But it was actually outspent by Romney and the big-donor-funded outside groups that supported him. They banked on larger donations to flood the airwaves in the final weeks to turn late-deciding voters against the incumbent in a backloaded strategy that left them with money in the bank at the end – typically a no-no in presidential politics. 
 
 Between Oct. 18 and Nov. 26, the period covered by Thursday’s filings, Obama’s campaign, combined with a trio of Democratic Party committees devoted to it (the Democratic National Committee and the joint DNC-Obama campaign committees called Obama Victory Fund 2012 and Swing State Victory Fund), raised $111 million, compared to $100 million raised by Romney’s campaign, the Republican National Committee and the joint RNC-Romney campaign Romney Victory. 
 
 POLITICO’s overall fundraising comparison is derived from the totals raised by those committees since the start of 2011. 
 
 (Also on POLITICO: Liberal donors gave at 11th hour) 
 
 But in the final weeks, Romney’s committees outspent Obama’s $292 million to $258 million, according to the reports. And Romney’s spending advantage widened to $337 million to $279 million when taking into consideration the super PACs devoted to the rivals, the pro-Obama Priorities USA Action and the pro-Romney Restore Our Future. Overall, Restore Our Future outraised Priorities $154 million to $79 million. 
 
 Super PACs like those, as well as secretive nonprofit groups – both spurred by the 2010 Citizens United decision and other federal court rulings – allowed extremely wealthy activists to play in presidential and congressional politics like never before. 
 
 And, while liberals rallied late in the cycle to super PACs supporting Obama and his Democratic congressional allies, conservatives led the way with this new type of campaign cash. 

 Billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson kept giving and giving to the bitter end of Republican Mitt Romney’s doomed presidential campaign. 
 
 Adelson, along with wife, Miriam, poured $10 million into the account of pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future on Oct. 19, new documents filed today with the Federal Election Commission indicate. 
 
 Text Size - 
 
 + 
 
 reset 
 
 The massive donation represents nearly half the $21.15 million Restore Our Future raised between Oct. 18 through Election Day on Nov. 6 — an amount that exceeds what nearly every other super PAC in the nation collected during the past two years. 
 
 An eclectic mix of notable businesspeople also made big-dollar, 11-hour contributions to Restore Our Future, including Oracle Corp. Chief Executive Officer Lawrence Ellison ($3 million), Houston Texans Chairman Robert McNair ($1 million) and Jimmy John’s sub shop founder James Liautaud ($500,000). 
 
 Others include Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Publisher Richard Scaife ($417,500), former Price is Right game show host Bob Barker ($174,200), Dick’s Sporting Goods Chairman Edward Stack ($100,000) and Mary Brock, co-owner of the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream ($100,000). 
 
 Several corporate entities also made big-dollar contributions, including the New York City-based holding company Renco Group ($1 million), which is led by investor, miner and industrialist Ira Rennert, and auto sales, rental and service company Penske Corp. ($250,000). 
 
 Restore Our Future spent $45.5 million between Oct. 18 and Nov. 26. Most of that funded advertisements, although $1.33 million went to the Podium Capital Group for “fundraising consulting services.” 
 
 As of Nov. 26, the super PAC reported $842,061 left in its coffer and no debt, having extinguished nearly all of the $153 million it raised during the election cycle primarily on advertisements slamming President Barack Obama, or earlier, Romney’s Republican primary foes in Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. 
 
 Overall, the Adelsons gave $30 million in the 2012 cycle to Restore Our Future. That doesn’t count tens of millions of dollars more the Adelsons gave to several other Republican-supporting super PACs, including $15 million to the previously pro-Newt Gingrich Winning Our Future committee. 
 
 Although the Adelsons’ massive amounts of cash largely went toward supporting candidates who lost, Sheldon Adelson is remaining quite visible, meeting this week with top Republican congressional and campaign leaders. 
 
 He told the Wall Street Journal this week that he’s considering spending at least $100 million or more during future campaigns.
– The country's first $2 billion election is in the books. The fundraising reports have been filed with the Federal Election Commission, and here's the tally: Obama with $1.123 billion, to Romney's $1.019 billion. Politico and the AP break down the numbers: There was a rash of giving at the last minute: About a fifth of what the pro-Obama Priorities USA Action raised came during the last weeks of the campaign. It spent about $21 million after Oct. 16, which Politico calls "remarkable, considering Priorities USA Action began the year destitute." Obama actually ended up outspending Romney in the campaign's final days, spending $176.4 million between Oct. 18 and Election Day. That's $71 million more than his rival spent. (And if you've ever thought "man, that money could have been spent on something more useful," Politico puts it in perspective: The president's 11th-hour spending could run all government operations for Dayton, Ohio, for more than a year.) Sheldon Adelson gave right up to "the bitter end," depositing $10 million into the coffers of pro-Romney super PAC Restore Our Future on Oct. 19. He also handed Karl Rove's American Crossroads $23 million as the campaign neared the finish. There won't be an Election 2016 for Obama, but he's likely not done fundraising: As of Nov. 26, there was $5.4 million left in his campaign account, but $7.22 million in debt.