Romney's $6.5M Day
BOSTON -- Ex-MA Gov. Mitt Romney (R) said he was "blown away" by the $6.5 million his friends and family raised and pledged toward a presidential campaign today, a figure that may shoot a bright flare in the direction of Romney's potential 2008 rivals, most notably Sen. John McCain and Ex-NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Fundamentally, the telephone-a-thon Romney led here today demonstrates the breadth of his personal network of supporters and associates.
"This is a message to [my wife] Ann and me, to our family and our friends that what we stand for and what we're going to fight for has been heard and that our friends are behind us and support us in remarkable ways and [it] gives us [the] energy and enthusiasm to move forward," Romney told a bank of television cameras and reporters tonight.
"This is not about rivals," he insisted, although his advisers earlier conceded they wanted to send an unmistakable message to McCain, especially, that Romney's organization would be formidable enough to challenge a frontrunner. More importantly, Romney's team hopes the press coverage of the day signals to Republican activists that Romney can compete in a field of heavyweights.
At the same time, raising such a large sum of money in one day -- with the caveat that part of the money has been pledged and not actually delivered -- is bound to raise expectations for Romney to raise a heck of a lot more by the end of the first quarter of record keeping in March. Romney plans to spend much of the next sixty days in fundraisers, aides said.
Romney will use the money to build a national fundraising organization and field operations in at least four states. He also hinted he would use some of it to begin to air early television advertisements. "I'm not as well known as the guys leading in the polls," he said. "I hope to be, if I get in."
How deep the Romney network is is an open question. "It is still low hanging and pre-ordered fruit they are gathering," said John McCain's chief strategist. That is, it's fairly easy for Romney to raise money from people who know him directly. The next $6.5 million will undoubtedly be more difficult to collect.
Romney acknowledged that the pace of his fundraising effort "is unlikely to be sustained," but he said the ComMitt software would become the basis for the national finance efforts. "What happened today is not just about raising an extraordinary amount of money." It was also, he said, "a convergence of technology and [the] personal touch."
Romney insisted that he only expected to raise about $1 million today, a figure that his staff dutifully repeated to reporters throughout the day. But he said his finance director, Spencer Zwick, had guessed a figure of $1.7 million in an office pool.
Romney, who is very rich, said that he intends to spend "as little as possible" of his own money in the campaign. "It would be akin to a nightmare." But "I'd always reserve the potential" of writing a check if circumstances warrant, he said. [MARC AMBINDER]
Mormons are very generous tithing up. I lived in Utah my whole childhood until I was 24, so I know a thing or two. He has no doubt the Church's backing and their deep pockets.
"He has no doubt the Church's backing and their deep pockets."
Trust me, you don't know a thing or two, Vicki.
Go Mitt!