Romney, GOP raise $170.4 million in September

WASHINGTON -- Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's campaign says it raised $170.4 million in September.

The figure brings Romney's fundraising effort slightly behind President Barack Obama's $181 million haul for the month. It leaves Romney, the Republican Party and related groups with $191 million in the bank to spend during the final full month of the campaign.

The campaign says about $43 million of those contributions came from checks of $250 or less, roughly a quarter of the campaign's September donations.

Romney and the GOP had been raising more money than Obama and the Democrats by mid-summer, but that changed last month. Both candidates are using their millions in cash to expand campaign offices and flood airwaves with television ads in states important to the election.