Mitt's PAC Growing Up

My very first post on this blog nearly a year and a half ago was on Governor Mitt Romney's Commonwealth PAC, and how his spreading money around early primary states indicated that he'd be running for president in 2008. Since that time, Romney has continued fundraising for his PAC and what was then mostly a collection of Mitt's buddies from Bain Capital has now grown, according to the Boston Globe, into a $1.6 million group of state and Federal PACs. As a state-level figure, Gov. Romney is not prohibited from creating state-level PAC affiliates, which he has done in such key primary states as Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Michigan. This creative solution allows him to raise money above and beyond the $5000 federal PAC limits. Now that Romney has declined to run for a second term for governor, he is also spending a lot more time fund raising for his PAC out-of-state. This is a huge change from a year ago when he denied that he had any control over what the PAC did with its money and who donated to it.

Of course, Romney is going to need a lot more than $1.6 million if he's going to win a presidential primary. He will be dogged by accusations that he is too liberal on abortion and gay rights (!) as he found out most recently in Idaho, and last year in his home state of Michigan. There is a certain 'truthiness' to the governor of Massachusetts being liberal, so Romney can certainly expect his primary opponents to spend millions on negative advertising portraying him in that light.

Only 21 More Months of This to Go!

State Attorney General and potential Democratic challenger Tom Reilly had some comments for Mitt regarding his recent PAC Activity:

"I wish there'd be more attention and more emphasis paid on what's happening in South Boston, where Gillette is headquartered, than what's happening in South Carolina," Reilly said, referring to a key presidential primary state where Romney is scheduled to speak to a local county Republican Party organization later this month. "You can't have your mind in two places."

So it seems that Reilly has focused in on Romney's ambition as a campaign theme. This is a good supplimental theme in so much as if people are willing to believe that Mitt wants to be president, they'll be more likely to believe that he's not really interested in being governor, but rather using that position as a stepping stone, leaving the Commonwealth in the lurch with Acting Governor Kerry Healey. The recent history of GOP Governors bolting Massachusetts as soon as something better comes up certainly has to help whichever Democratic candidate ends up being the nominee.

Reilly also touched on this theme last night on WGBH's Greater Boston. When asked about his recent takeover of Big Dig cost recovery, he contrasted his willingness to "do the work" with the Governor's willingness to duck responsibility for a political football. As Reilly's campaign kicks into full gear we'll probably hear more phrases like "willing to do the work" or "get his hands dirty" or "put in the hours" coming from him. It's probably better for him to position himself as the "serious" candidate because if he tries to be the "exciting" candidate, it will doubtless end up sounding forced. I could be underestimating the Attorney General, but judging from his performance last night and at the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce last month, he's not particularly a bundle of raw charisma.

Also in the Globe article, Mitt's obsequious mouthpiece Eric Fehrnstrom invokes the classic right-wing "but Democrats do it too!" regarding the Commonwealth PAC expenditures by pointing at John Kerry and Ted Kennedy. The difference, which Fehrnstrom of course never mentions, is that Kerry and Kennedy are Federal figures. If they spend money to help Democrats in South Carolina, Iowa or New Hampshire it's with the goal of increasing Democratic membership in the Senate -- in fact Kennedy's PAC is even called the Committee for a Democratic Majority. The more Democrats in the Senate, the more power Kennedy and Kerry have to affect legislation and deliver for Massachusetts. On the other hand, what do we in Massachusetts care about county-level Republican parties in South Carolina? Does a strong Republican party in Kentucky make Mitt a more effective governor? I can't imagine it would, especially since it seems increasingly clear he's got one foot out of the door already.

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.