“I don’t know that he’s completely tapped out, but they are trying to look under every stone,” said a top New York Republican fundraiser. “You run out of people you can hit up for $2,500,” he said, referring to the legal limit for primary contributions.

“Here in New York he has had fundraiser after fundraiser after fundraiser,” said another top New York Republican. “Even in New York, there’s only so much you can get out of the city.”…

The donors weren’t ready for an intramural dogfight: “They never expected this Santorum surge and quite frankly aren’t comfortable calling their colleagues with the pitch ‘help Mitt Romney defeat Rick Santorum in the primary.’ It is honestly a little embarrassing. They don’t understand how the campaign hasn’t already locked up the nomination. Donors see it as a waste of money and don’t take the Santorum surge seriously.”…

But the campaign remains dogged by the sense that donors are beginning to give up. Three Republicans who work closely with Romney’s bundlers said they had begun to shift their focus away from the presidential campaign entirely.