Romney taps personal fortune again to fund bid
Mitt Romney said yesterday that he had written another check to his campaign this quarter and may do so again before the quarter ends Saturday, signaling that he will tap his personal fortune to fund his presidential bid whenever he deems necessary.
Romney, who loaned himself $2.4 million last year to help kick-start his campaign, said he felt compelled to contribute again this quarter because he needed to run TV ads and travel the country to broaden his name recognition. He said he began the race as an underdog to his better-known competitors, Senator John McCain of Arizona and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani.
"It would be nice not to have to loan or contribute to your own campaign, but the reality is if you want to have a strong campaign that gets out there and can talk across the nation, you're going to have to do what's necessary," Romney said at a news conference at the TD Banknorth Garden, where he had assembled supporters for a daylong fund-raising marathon. "One of the things I've had to do that you don't have to do if your name is McCain or Giuliani is introduce myself [to voters]."
Romney declined to say how much he had chipped in already this quarter and said he was not sure if his personal contributions would end up being loans or gifts. The amount he has given from April through June will be disclosed when Romney, as with all candidates for the presidency, files his second-quarter finance figures with the Federal Election Commission by July 15.
Romney led all Republican presidential contenders in fund-raising in the first quarter of 2007, raising $21 million from supporters around the country, in addition to his loan.
Romney's campaign brought in 1,000 supporters from across the country yesterday and Sunday to help him make a final fund-raising push before the quarter closes this weekend.
The revelation of another check from Romney, whose assets have been estimated at as much as $350 million, came as a surprise, as Romney had declared at a similar fund-raising event in Boston in January that it would be "akin to a nightmare" if he were forced to self-fund his campaign. His campaign later revealed that at the time Romney said that, he had already loaned $2.4 million.
Asked yesterday to square his more recent contributions with his "nightmare" comment, Romney said, "It is a nightmare." Asked why he was doing it, he said, "Because I have to, all right? My message is important and critical to get out into this country."
Romney said that he had already spent about $3 million on advertising in five states and that he would like to be able to stay on the air through 2007 and 2008, but that "wasn't in the cards."
He said he would continue writing his campaign checks.
"I recognize that when you're the underdog, not terribly well known, you have to try harder," he said. "And that's meant that I need to contribute, as well as others, to this effort."
Among the prominent supporters who came to Boston for yesterday's "America's Calling" event was Senator Bob Bennett of Utah, a long time friend of Romney's. Bennett said he was hoping to raise $20,000.
Bennett said he had collected money from donors, including a Giuliani supporter he would not name, who would not have necessarily given to Romney in the first quarter but will now because they think he might win the GOP nomination.
"It's a different kind of dynamic when you have to play on expectations [about] who's probably going to be the nominee," Bennett said.
Another top Romney fund-raiser who traveled to Boston for the event was
"What I think they find most interesting is that I've never done this before," Whitman said. "I'm not a professional political fund-raiser. . . . It's really only because I think it is such an important time in the history of our country and because I believe so much in Mitt that I'm even doing this."
Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com. 