Posted on 01/01/2007 5:39:18 PM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist
(AP) BOSTON -- Gov. Mitt Romney will file paperwork forming a presidential exploratory committee on Wednesday, a delay of 24 hours out of respect for the funeral services scheduled Tuesday for former President Gerald R. Ford, according to a top aide familiar with his plans.
Romney, like Ford a Republican and former Michigan resident, will submit the necessary papers to the Federal Election Commission, a registration that will allow him to raise and spend money in pursuit of the 2008 GOP nomination. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani have already taken the same step.
Romney ended a 10-day vacation at his home in Utah on Monday, and he had intended to file his paperwork on Tuesday, the first business day of the new year. But Ford's death on Dec. 26 triggered a mourning period that will close federal offices and the U.S. Postal Service on Tuesday, the day the former president will be buried in Grand Rapids, Mich.
"We want to be very, very respectful of that," said the Romney aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity pending the creation of the presidential committee.
Ford's death overshadowed last week's presidential announcement by former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, who declared he would seek the Democratic nomination.
While the committee filing will be labeled "exploratory," it will declare Romney as an official presidential candidate and commit him to the same fundraising and reporting rules he will have to follow when, as is expected, he transitions to a formal presidential campaign committee.
A formal announcement is expected sometime this year, although Romney is planning a major fundraising event in Boston on Jan. 8 to propel his candidacy.
Romney aides believe the governor, the son of George Romney, a 1968 presidential candidate and the former governor of Michigan, can find a following as a youthful alternative to McCain and a more conservative candidate than Giuliani.
If successful, Romney would become the first Mormon elected president.
The 59-year-old is a former venture capitalist who made hundreds of millions of dollars at Bain Capital helping start such companies as Staples, the office-supply giant. He took over the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City following a bid-rigging scandal that was an embarrassment to Utah, the United States and the International Olympic Committee.
In 2002, he returned to Massachusetts and won a four-year term as governor, his first and only stint in elective office. He unsuccessfully challenged Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., for the U.S. Senate in 1994.
At 5 p.m. Wednesday, Romney will take the "lone walk" down the 31 steps of the Massachusetts Statehouse, a ceremonial departure reserved for presidents, heads of state and departing governors. On Thursday, Democrat Deval Patrick will be sworn in, the first black governor in the state's history and only the second elected in the nation since Reconstruction.
Romney will not attend the ceremony, instead settling into his new campaign headquarters in the city's North End. Aides began moving into the building on Monday, another sign of the impending campaign.
The governor plans to base his campaign out of Massachusetts primarily for logistical reasons, rather than Michigan, his birth state and host to a key early presidential primary, or Utah, a power base in the politically important Mountain West.
Aides say the governor relishes returning to his wife, Ann, and his Belmont home after a stretch of campaign travel. Basing the campaign in Boston also allows him easy access to political consultants in Washington and financial backers in New York.
In addition, it will allow him to campaign in New Hampshire, which holds the first presidential primary, and stay either in Massachusetts or a second vacation home in the Granite State.
One of the reason why we lost the last election was because of guys like Tom DeLay and their corruption.
So Bush is horrible????
I don't think it will matter, since I think he has maybe a 5-10% chance of getting the nomination. But that's just me though.
I didn't say that....
Did you?
Where Duncan Hunter has a .005% chance of getting the nomination...
So many people were yelling about 'conservative' but no one could equate that into a a bill, or orate what that means to the Main Street voter.
When the emotional anger of democratic trash wore off, Republicans were still trying to appeal to their emotions.
Instead of teaching rational people what a conservative is, and what that means, they were running around screaming 'those damn democrats!' even though republicans were in charge of the DC lock stock and barrel.
Anyone that takes money from the LCR will have to vote for the N.A. Union.
The endorsements come with a contract. So you are not voting for a candidate. You are voting for the LCR. The LCR receives funding from the Rainbow Network who ALSO funds the democratic Victory Fund. The Victory Funds are the GLBT endorsements for Democrates and the Log Cabin funds are for the Republican (RINOs). They all come David Mixner's GLBT action committee AND Soros Foundation.
Yeah. I understand that. I see a replay of 2006 coming in 2008. Our side will be standing around whining and griping while more DemocRATS goosestep their way into Congress and the Rodham/Obama ticket celebrates its "landslide" victory.
Go to www. mainstreetrepublicans.org and see how many of those pukes are still hanging around.. not many! Mike Castle won in DE and he is one of the biggest jerks! The other reasone we lost is because of people like John Mc Cain, Lindsay Graham, John Warner, Voinovich, De Wine and the other pansified gang of fourteen who play both sides of the Street!
Moderates are those who carry not the courage of their convictions.
Three questions for Mitt.
1) If John Paul Stevens retired on your watch as President who would you replace him with? Please give names of suitable replacements.
2) As President, do you support preserving the Hyde Amendment, an federal law which bars tax funded abortions?
3) Do you support reviving the now expired the Assault Weapons Ban?
3 Questions for you..
Do you really think JPS or RBG will survive the next Supreme Court session?
Do you really think that the country as a whole has the political will to forbid abortion?
Do you really think that we as a nation can survive if one third of us are immovable objects?
Of the potential Republican presidential candidates, Romney will most likely limit the size of government and reform the entitlement programs.
I'm voting for Frank Keating.
Link? What does the LCR care about the North American Union?
Link? To what? Soros laid out the plans for the North American Unions at the World Economic Forum in 1995.
Soros Foundation is a funder of the Log Cabin Republicans.
What do you want a link to? The World Economic forum?
Open Society Institute?
Soros Foundation?
Open Secrets?
Here is one worth archiving:
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Log_Cabin_Republicans
Log Cabin Republicans campaigned AGAINST Bush in 2004.
Log Cabin (Republicans) need to account for where they got the money to fund the $1M ad campaign against President Bush in 2004 in key battleground states. This is a Federally-regulated organization (IRS and FEC rules apply!), but they have never documented where this money came from.
I am witcha! I just don't think LCR is a huge influence politically on a national scale. They may piss you of as a group, don't start with me , I live in the Gay State.
I just don't think that they carry alot of voters, we are talking 2 percent of the population here.
"3) Do you support reviving the now expired the Assault Weapons Ban? "
Better to ask him what an "Assault Weapon" is, and why they are so deadly. That type of open ended question will reveal more of his inner beliefs.
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