Free Republic

BOSTON --Republican Mitt Romney gathered more than 350 of his strongest supporters for a glitzy fundraising blitz Monday aimed not only at financing his fledgling presidential campaign, but also scaring off potential rivals and putting existing ones on notice. The former Massachusetts governor raised more than $2.5 million in less than six hours, but he and his staff expected the daily total to smash earlier fundraising numbers for Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who also have created 2008 exploratory committees. Both raised less than $2 million in their initial fundraising ventures. "I think it's...

Posted on Sun, Oct. 26, 2003 'Pay to play' entrenched in the city Experts in campaign finance say the give-and-get game in Phila. is as brazen as it gets. By Ken Dilanian, Cynthia Burton and Rose Ciotta Inquirer Staff Writers Three decades ago, Mayor Frank L. Rizzo had a stock answer when asked why he doled out city contracts to his political supporters. "I have to give them to somebody," he said. "You don't expect me to give them to my enemies, do you?" On this subject, the late Rizzo and Mayor Street are kindred spirits, as Street has made...