Tuesday, February 01, 2005

The Birth of a Campaign

So it would seem that (Willard) Mitt Romney's campaign for President in '08 has begun in earnest with The Commonwealth PAC dumping money into early primary states:

Friends and supporters of Governor Mitt Romney have established a political action committee that has lavished more than $250,000 on Republican candidates and county GOP organizations across the nation since July, apparently laying the groundwork for a potential presidential run for the Massachusetts politician in 2008.

The Commonwealth PAC has pumped more than $35,000 into the campaign coffers of Republican candidates for the US House and Senate in 17 states and has created state subsidiaries that have distributed tens of thousands more in four key states: Iowa, South Carolina, Michigan, and Arizona.

So, Mitt's buddies are pumping cash into early primary states like Iowa, South Carolina and New Hampshire. I'm sure that has nothing to do with Mitt's presidential ambitions. It's probably just that Judd Gregg really needed that extra grand to squeak by 97 year old Doris Haddock 66 to 34. Certainly they're not trying to curry favor with the South Carolina GOP by funneling money to Jim DeMint. They probably just agree that single mothers shouldn't be public school teachers. Good to see them standing up for fine conservative principles.

Of course, Mitt's obsequious mouthpiece, Eric Fehrnstrom claims that Mitt himself has no control over what Commonwealth PAC does with its money. And why not? It's not like Commonwealth PAC's donors are Mitt's old friends from Bain Capital. Why would they listen to Mitt at all?

Commonwealth PAC director, Trent Wisecup also knows something about being an obsequious mouthpiece. He was, after all Ronna Romney's (Mitt's ex-sister-in-law) spokesman for her two Senate runs in Michigan (in '94 and '96). I'm sure if Mitt cared enough to dispel rumors that he intends to strand Massachusetts with Acting Governor Kerry Healey in '08, he could pick up the phone and tell Wisecup to keep his spending closer to home. Home being Massachusetts, of course, not Utah or Michigan or DC -- with Romney it's hard to keep up sometimes.

Wisecup, by the way is the same person who managed to insert a few lines shilling for his client Walmart in a Weekly Standard Op-Ed. I guess we should expect more shilling for his client Mitt as we get closer to the GOP primary season.