Update: Romney loaned himself a big chunk of change…
Mitt Romney posted $23m raised. Hotline has the story:
Ex-MA Gov. Mitt Romney raised $23M this quarter, more than enough to top the field of Republican contenders.
That Romney was able to squeeze so many low hanging fruit sources in what has inarguably been a rough political quarter for him speaks highly of the relationships he’s cultivated over these years. It’s also a testament to his fundraising team, led by Spencer Zwick, and the campaign’s technologically advanced ComMitt activism platform. All Romney’s money was raised into his primary campaign accounts.
That’s quite an impressive number. Look for arguments from the Romney campaign about needing to compete financially with Hillary.
While John McCain did not release numbers today (so far) they did try to get in the news cycle by announcing someone switching from Romney’s Florida Finance Committee list to their own (no link yet):
U.S. Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign today announced that Gate Petroleum founder Herbert Hill Peyton of Jacksonville, Florida will support the Arizona Senator’s bid for the White House and join the John McCain 2008 Advisory Committee in Florida.
And one of the Romney team’s lead fundraisers mentioned that, while honor binds him to Romney, if Romney were to drop out, he would, eagerly, switch to Fred Thompson:
Back in January, I had no idea that Fred was even thinking about it," Welch said. "I went ahead and committed to (Massachusetts Gov.) Mitt Romney because I thought he was the best of the lot that had shown interest in running. It would be very inappropriate and very unfair for me to say to Mitt Romney, ‘Hey, Fred Thompson decided to run and I’m gone. Bye.’ I’m not going to do anything like that. I made
a commitment, and I’m going to stick with it, so long as he is in the race."If he, for some reason, were to drop out, my choice would naturally be Fred Thompson."
Welch made sure to say that last sentence several times: If Romney’s out, Thompson is Welch’s guy.
But, all in all, that is just other people trying to rain on Romney’s parade. Mitt Romney wins the day.
