WP: Mitt Romney's unique state-based Presidential fund-raising

[DeepModem Mom]

Romney Plants $eeds in South Carolina
washingtonpost.com's Politics Blog
"The Fix," by Chris Cillizza


Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks to reporters Tuesday during a news conference at the Statehouse in Boston. (AP Photo)

When it comes to fundraising for a potential 2008 presidential bid, Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) is doing things differently than any of the other Republicans (or Democrats) also mulling a run for the White House.

Most of these aspirants are raising cash for their personal campaign accounts, like Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), Evan Bayh (D-Ind.) and George Allen (R-Va.). Or they are raising funds for leadership political action committees -- Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner (D).

Romney has a federal PAC (The Commonwealth PAC), but he has also established state-based fundraising committees in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Michigan -- states whose caucuses or primaries will occur in the earliest days of the '08 presidential nominating contest.

Romney has focused his presidential fundraising on his state groups for several reasons. First, a single donor is limited to contributing $5,000 a year to any federal PAC, but a donor can make considerably larger donations to state-chartered PACs (neither Iowa nor Michigan have contribution limits; an individual can give $3,500 in South Carolina and $5,000 in New Hampshire).

Given that each state has different filing regulations, Romney's state-based strategy makes it considerably more difficult to track where his contributions are coming from and what he is doing with the money. The Boston Globe did the definitive story to date on Romney's multi-state fundraising groups last month....

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/

Link to Boston Globe story: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/06/11/romney_strategy_pays_off_quickly/

[sallyseven]

1. I just want him out of Massachusetts. He is a drag

on the ability of people here to be successful. I despise him and wish he would just go away. He is worse than Bush.