Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Astute readers of the Phoenix will recall me telling you back in November that Bob Perry, the multimillion-dollar backer of the Swift Boat group that torpedoed John Kerry, donated to Mitt Romney's self-promotional political committee. As I wrote then:

That’s why the most noteworthy contribution Mitt Romney’s Commonwealth PAC has received so far may be the relatively modest $5750 given by Bob Perry on November 3. Why? Perry, a mega-successful home builder in Houston, is the man who spent $4.5 million funding the Swift Boat Veterans’ attacks on John Kerry in 2004. This year, Perry spent another $6.5 million on the midterm elections.

If you were really astute, you picked up on my reporting six months earlier, that Perry had given a much larger sum (a half-mil in total) to the Republican Governors Association under Romney's chairmanship.

Now the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza reports that Perry is an official part of Romney's fundraising effort, as part of Romney's "Texas Leadership Team." As I have previously suggested, I suspect that Perry and many other wealthy conservatives plan to "Swift Boat" McCain, and perhaps Giuliani, in the primaries.

In the same post, Cillizza answers a question I posed on this blog three months ago: What will Romney name his high-level fundraising "bundlers," in the tradition of George W. Bush's Rangers and Pioneers? I suggested Gold, Silver, and Bronze Medallists, harkening to Mitt's Olympics legacy. I guessed wrong:

Romney has created a stratified bundling system based on the "Rangers" and "Pioneers" model employed by Bush in 2000 and 2004. To be a "Founder," an individual must raise $250,000 for the campaign; a "Statesman" is charged with collecting $100,000, and a "Patriot" $50,000.

I think my suggestion is better.

3/21/2007 12:26:53 PM by David S. Bernstein | Comments [2] |  
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