Money Can Buy Mitt Love

Both the Boston Globe's blog and David Bernstein at the Phoenix are reporting that former governor Mitt Romney has won the endorsement of South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint in Romney's quest for the Republican nomination for president. What's missing from both accounts, however, is the fact that Romney's Commonwealth PAC was an early donor to DeMint's 2004 Senate campaign, a fact that I noted in my first ever post to this blog. At the time, he denied he was setting up a base of support for a presidential run, but it looks like his investment has paid off for him. According to Opensecrets, Commonwealth PAC has given $7,000 to DeMint over the past two election cycles, even though DeMint was not up for election in 2006. Note that this beats the amount that Senator John McCain's Straight Talk America PAC gave to the South Carolina senator by two thousand dollars.

Update: I just took a second look at the Commonwealth PAC track record for Senate. I noticed with interest that the PAC supported only one candidate who won his election in 2006 -- $3,000 to Arizona Senator Jon Kyl. All told, Commonwealth PAC spent $50,000 on Senate losers and $7,000 to Senators with no 2006 race (DeMint and his fellow SC Senator, Lindsey Graham).