Sign up for Friends With Benefits
The Phoenix
Search The Site
     
Last updated on Sunday, November 26, 2006 8:18 AM                            Search powered by Google
View Phoenix Listings
LISTINGS
LISTINGS
NEWS
MUSIC
MOVIES
FOOD
LIFE
ART + BOOKS
HOME ENTERTAINMENT
MOONSIGNS

Who’s footing the gov’s latest bills?

Romney watch

By: DAVID S. BERNSTEIN
5/17/2006 6:21:46 PM

Sadly, Mitt Romney’s staff members have cut way back on the use of his gubernatorial-campaign credit card, which had made it easy for us to track their cross-country sojourns. (See “Romney Watch,” This Just In, April 5.) But fear not: this doesn’t mean he has been stuck in the Bay State. In just the past eight weeks, the Barnstormin’ Mormon has been spotted in California; Arizona; Colorado; Iowa; Illinois; Michigan; Kentucky; Florida; New York; Washington, DC; Italy; and Guantánamo. He hits Wisconsin and Washington State this coming weekend.

Much of the travel tab has been picked up by the so-called 527 political committee of the Republican Governors Association, of which Romney became chair in December.

That RGA fund took in a hefty $6.5 million in contributions in the first three months of 2006 — its best pace since its creation in 2002. The fund draws mostly from corporations, but under Romney it has already picked up more than a million bucks from individuals.

Leading the way are four members of the right wing’s million-dollar-donor club (see “The GOP Empire Strikes Back,” News and Features, October 9, 2004): Univision chair A. Jerrold Perenchio, American Financial Group chair Carl Lindner, Texas developer and Swift Boat bankroller Bob Perry, and Ameriquest co-founder and Deval Patrick albatross Dawn Arnall. The four combined to give $650,000 to the RGA’s 527 coffers in the first quarter of 2006 — more than it cost to replace the half-million from convicted Jack Abramoff co-conspirator Michael Scanlon that Romney decided to donate to the American Red Cross.

Romney is also starting to use Commonwealth PAC, his “leadership” political-action committee, which spent about $5000 on airfare and hotels in early ’06. (Its Web site — thecommonwealthpac.com — is finally up.)


ADVERTISEMENT



The Romney for Governor Committee has done some spending too — including on two $65 “gifts for supporters” from online logo-laden knickknacks outlet Cafepress.com. Presumably, these weren’t chosen from among the anti-Romney swag previously featured in these pages (see “Product Placement,” This Just In, June 3, 2005). But there are now plenty of pro-Romney designs available there, on everything from mouse pads to teddy bears. Among them: “Ohioans for Mitt,” “Tennesseans for Mitt,” “Mitt ’08,” “Mitt Happens,” “Americans for Mitt,” “Romney: Yankee Governor, Southern Values,” “I’m sMITTen,” “Pro-Life, Pro-Family, Pro-Romney,” and “The Mitt has hit the fan.” Although the more apt phrase, as usual, is “The Mitt has hit the road.”

  Change Text Size


 VIEWED EMAILED COMMENTED




No comments yet. Be the first to start a conversation.

Login to add comments to this article
Email

Password




Register Now  |   Lost password







TODAY'S FEATURED ADVERTISERS
   
Copyright © 2006 The Phoenix Media/Communications Group