Former Massachussetts Gov. Mitt Romney raised a whopping $6.5 million for his presidential campaign Monday night in a giant fund-raiser in Boston augmented by a big national call-a-thon, an eye-popping number that's sure to have raised eyebrows over at the McCain campaign and the Giuliani camp. Washington Post reporter Chris Cilizza runs down the details on his blog. Cilizza also notes some additions to Romney's campaign:
Romney continues to recruit elected officials and key staffers to his presidential campaign. Former Gov. Bill Owens (R-Colo.) and Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) have signed on as supporters. On the staff level, Romney has recruited Charlie Spies, the former general counsel at the Republican National Committee and Republican Governors Association, to serve as chief financial officer and counsel. Spies, according to informed sources, will be charged with establishing and managing the budget of the Romney campaign. The campaign has also brought on Ted Newton, who made his name in 2004 at the Republican National Committee by developing the opposition research book on Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, will be Romney's research director. Joe Pounder, who worked in research for the California Republican Party last cycle, will be a part of Romney's rapid response team.
You'd have to say that Romney's stock is rising, at least in the "fund-raising primary" that precedes the actual nominating primary season. A new Reuters report looks at that fund-raising primary, saying the 2008 White House race "is almost certain to carry a record price tag, putting a premium on fund-raising skills and driving the weakest candidates from the field more quickly than ever."
Reuters says the ease of raising money on the Internet and an increase in individual donor limits under a 5-year-old federal law that revamped campaign financing - that would be the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law - "has helped pump up political fund-raising totals."
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