New hire may aid in a Romney race
Iowa specialist key in Bush run
Two campaign committees affiliated with Governor Mitt Romney have hired a well-connected Iowa political consultant who played a key role in President Bush's victory in the state in last year's presidential election.
The consultant, Gentry Collins, a former executive director of the Iowa Republican Party, has been paid nearly $27,000 in recent months by the Massachusetts Republican State Congressional Committee, a federal campaign panel of the state Republican Party, and Commonwealth PAC, a group based in Michigan that Romney supporters created earlier this year.
Collins's work for the two committees is another signal that Romney is looking to make inroads in the key presidential state of Iowa, where he has traveled at least twice this year as he considers a run for the White House in 2008. Commonwealth PAC has also strategically sprinkled thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to local party groups and candidates in Iowa.
Romney has said he will announce this fall whether he will run for reelection.
The executive director of Commonwealth PAC, Trent Wisecup, said Collins has been helping the committee to determine how best to support Republicans around the country -- namely how Commonwealth PAC, which has affiliates in four states and a separate federal committee, can distribute money most effectively to candidates and GOP chapters.
''He's just providing general consulting services across the PAC," he said. ''The mission of the PAC is to help build the Republican Party." Collins did not respond to requests for comment.
Before he took the leadership of the Iowa Republican Party, Collins ran the unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign of a Des Moines lawyer, Doug Gross, in 2002 and worked as an aide for the majority leader in the Iowa House.
Gross called Collins ''a real prize" yesterday, a hard-working operative who was instrumental in helping Bush beat Senator John F. Kerry by 10,000 votes in Iowa, a state Bush had lost to Al Gore in 2000 by 4,000 votes.
''That 14,000-vote turnaround may not seem like a lot, but it was done solely because of a tremendous grass-roots effort that was previously unseen in Iowa," Gross said. ''And Gentry was a big part of that."
Collins was paid $4,000 in July and $7,500 in September by Commonwealth PAC, according to campaign finance records; and he was paid $15,000 by the state party committee in June.
Matthew Wylie, executive director of the Massachusetts Republican Party, said the GOP had sought out Collins's expertise in grass-roots organizing.
He said the state party wanted to apply some of the lessons of the Bush victory in Iowa to Commonwealth, in hopes of helping to get more Massachusetts Republicans elected to state and national offices.
''Gentry is a grass-roots specialist," Wylie said. ''They organized a great grass-roots effort out there. The party went to them and said, 'Ok, what did you do?' "
Iowa, where Romney attended two fund-raisers last weekend, is one of several crucial primary and caucus states he has visited. Iowa is the state that holds the first presidential caucuses.
Romney has made a similar effort in Michigan, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.
Wisecup said that the Commonwealth PAC might bring in additional consultants as it ramps up activity as next year's midterm elections approach.
''Commonwealth PAC is a really active grass-roots Republican organization," Wisecup said. ''We intend to be very active going forward in the 2006 election cycle."
That activity could also reap many benefits for Romney as he seeks to make contacts and line up political support for a potential White House bid.
Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com. 