Obama Campaign Fears Uphill Climb Raising "Super PAC" Money President Obama greeted supporters after arriving in Houston for two fund-raising events last week. The warning came from David Plouffe, President Obama's top political adviser: The Koch brothers and Republican "super PACs" have pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to defeat Mr. Obama, he told a dozen wealthy Democrats gathered in a Silicon Valley office suite. Do not believe what you read about all the money the president will raise himself, Mr. Plouffe urged them. He needs your help. With the general election campaign just a few months away, Mr. Obama's allies are under growing pressure to raise money rapidly for Democratic-leaning independent groups, warning his supporters that the huge cash advantage mustered by Republican groups could prove decisive this fall, overwhelming Mr. Obama despite his own formidable fund-raising apparatus. Early indications are that the Democratic super PACs are facing an uphill climb. While Mr. Obama's decision last month to endorse the super PACs" fund-raising - a reversal of his longstanding opposition to campaign spending by independent groups - has made potential donors more receptive to Priorities USA Action and similar groups, few so far have written the kind of six- and seven-figure checks that Republican super PACs are collecting. 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. Those amounts are substantial for Priorities USA and a related group, which together raised about $6.1 million through the end of 2011. But it leaves them far behind American Crossroads, the leading Republican super PAC, which took in $51 million in 2011 and expects to eventually raise $240 million. Charles and David Koch, the billionaire conservative oilmen, expect to raise another $200 million for other groups opposing Mr. Obama. The disparity leaves the president largely reliant on the tens of millions he is raising for his own campaign to counter an expected onslaught of negative advertising. "February was obviously a much better month than we've had in a while," said Bill Burton, a spokesman for Priorities USA. But Democrats who want the president to win re-election are going to have to ramp up the numbers in order to stay competitive with the avalanche of Republican money coming at him. Democratic super PAC officials have beseeched donors with slide shows illustrating how a group backing Mitt Romney has spent millions of dollars pounding Mr. Romney's rivals in the Republican primary - an object lesson in the power of super PACs, they say. They have also presented expected fund-raising figures for the Republican National Committee and various conservative groups, which they say will negate Mr. Obama's advantage in traditional fund-raising. Although federal election law prohibits super PACs from coordinating their spending with campaigns they are supporting, the Obama camp is exploiting loopholes that allows the president's aides to help court donors. In February, Jim Messina, Mr. Obama's campaign manager, addressed prospective Priorities USA donors at the Chicago offices of John W. Rogers Jr., an investment manager and Obama fund-raiser, while Mr. Plouffe's event, this month, was hosted by Steve Westly, a California venture capitalist and major Obama donor. Still, significant obstacles remain, according to interviews with leading Democratic donors and consultants. 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. "I'm undecided," said Mark Buell, a philanthropist and major Democratic donor. It's really about whether we can afford to take the high road on this. And that is going to be decided by some of the poll data going forward.