WASHINGTON (Map, News) - GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney said Tuesday he was “not going to run out of money,” even though he spent $20 million in the second quarter, more than any other candidate.

In an interview with The Examiner, Romney also said no one should “write off John McCain,” whose reeling campaign is virtually broke. Romney suggested McCain’s long-term financial picture might actually be brighter than that of Republican rival Fred Thompson, who has not yet declared his candidacy.

“Let’s say Senator McCain’s war chest happens to reach zero,” Romney said at his campaign headquarters in Boston’s North End. “It’s not like he’s in the same position as somebody who’s never been in [a presidential campaign]. He’s learned from it; he’s got the infrastructure.”

The Romney campaign spent millions in the second quarter building its own financial infrastructure. The former Massachusetts governor said the cost of direct-mail fundraising essentially cancels out the money raised through this method, but it winnows a vast pool of potential donors into a core group of contributors who can be tapped in the general election at minimal cost.

“So it looks like, oh, you spent a lot of money,” said Romney, whose campaign still has $12 million in cash. “Yeah, we’ve spent it, but we built [an] organization.”

The best-known Republicans in the presidential race, McCain and Rudy Giuliani, spent $12 million and $11 million respectively in the second quarter, mainly on campaign operations. Romney, by contrast, spent millions on TV ads to boost his name recognition.

“That’s something I need to do because I’m not generally well-known,” he said.

He added: “One thing you can know is that given my management and finance background, we’re not going to run out of money. So this is not done on a random basis. This is done on a managed, carefully thought-through basis. And so we’re managing this in a way that makes sense to us.”

Although Thompson is outpolling McCain, who has long been a declared candidate, Romney attributed that to Thompson’s acting career on TV and in movies.

“Can he raise the money? Will he do the work it takes to become the president?” Romney asked. “To beat Hillary Clinton, you’re going to have to raise a lot of money. You’re going to have to work like crazy.”

Romney also alluded to Thompson’s long years in Washington, including a stint as a senator from Tennessee.

“You’re going to have to show the ability to be distinct from Washington,” Romney said. “I don’t think America is going to elect a Washington insider the next president. So can he do those things? We’ll find out when he’s in the race.”

bsammon@dcexaminer.com