Romney campaign declines to name bundlers

[maddezmom]

top Mitt Romney adviser signaled Monday the campaign would continue to keepRomney senior adviser Ed Gillespie signaled the campaign would continue to keep the names of the campaign's bundlers private.
CAPTIONBy Josh Reynolds, AP the names of its bundlers private, even as he accused President Obama of giving special favors to those who have raised campaign cash.

Unlike the Obama campaign, Romney has not revealed the names of his top political fundraisers, called "bundlers" because they bundle together contributions in small increments from family, friends and business associates. These individuals are so important they are often rewarded with ambassadorships.

"The issue here is not so much the appointments and that kind of thing, it's the contracts, the subsidies, the loan guarantees, the waivers and that's what we are going to be focused on," Ed Gillespie, a senior adviser to the Romney campaign, said when asked whether the campaign would reveal its top donors. "Governor Romney's contributors are made public, they are disclosed and we'll continue to do that."

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Obama senior strategist David Axelrod shot back at the Romney campaign via Twitter, writing, "Only Mitt could cry cronyism while refusing 2 disclose his $$$ bundlers--as every candidate, R and D, has done for decades? #Mittsecrets"

more: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2012/07/romney-campaign-declines-to-name-bundlers/1

[Scurrilous]

1. K & R

[maddezmom]

2. good article here

Can Romney Make Cronyism an Issue for Obama?

The challenger tries to paint the president as corrupt but just ends up calling attention to his own refusal to disclose who his biggest donors are.
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Even as Romney's campaign was rolling out the "political payoffs" line Monday, the obstacles of turning the Republican nominee into an anti-Washington crusader were evident. The campaign held a conference call for reporters featuring Ed Gillespie, a senior Romney adviser who worked in the George W. Bush White House and runs a major Washington lobbying firm. He branded the problem as one of "Chicago-style politics and Chicago-style economics," the latter a confusing reference that surely was not intended to evoke the "Chicago school" of right-wing economists such as Milton Friedman.

If political favors to major donors are such an issue, Gillsepie was asked, shouldn't the Romney campaign reveal its fundraising bundlers?

Gillespie demurred: "The issue here is not so much the appointments, that kind of thing," he said. "It's the contracts, the subsidies, the loan guarantees, the waivers -- that's what we're going to be focused on. As you know, Governor Romney's contributors are made public. They're disclosed."

In other words: No, Romney will not be revealing his bundlers, something every nominee has done since at least 2000. And thus another potentially potent criticism of the incumbent gets turned once again into a story about what voters still don't know about Mitt Romney.


http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2012/07/can-romney-make-cronyism-an-issue-for-obama/259881/

[nc4bo]

3. Piece of work. It boggles my mind how the GOP

could be behind this spoiled brat creep. He was damaged goods before he got out the gate.

All his little secrets are being exposed on the national stage.

[nc4bo]

4. Someone help me understand something about campaign donations....please?

Ran into this on a friends FB page: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/232963-mccain-says-adelson-routing-foreign-money-to-romney-campaign

Is this legal?

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Friday said Mitt Romney is benefiting indirectly from "foreign money" after casino mogul Sheldon Adelson pledged $10 million to a super-PAC that supports his presidential bid.

"Much of Mr. Adelson's casino profits that go to him come from his casino in Macau, which says that obviously, maybe in a roundabout way foreign money is coming into an American political campaign," McCain told PBS's "News Hour."