'08 Fundraising Season Heats Up
Romney, Richardson Coming to Jackson Hole
By Gil Brady, 8-17-07
JACKSON, Wyo.—The 2008 fundraising season here kicks into high gear with the expected arrival of two prime-time candidates for president of the United States.
Former Governor Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, a Republican, and current Democratic Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico are scheduled to touchdown in Jackson next week to attend Valley fundraisers for their campaigns, according to sources and today’s Casper Star-Tribune.
Richardson, Romney, and fourteen other hopefuls, have announced their intention to seek their party’s nomination for president.
The two Rs will be the first ‘08 presidential candidates to visit Wyoming.
Their visits come on the heels of last week’s stopover by Democratic national chairman Howard Dean, who attended a fundraiser at the home of Imaging and Gerry Spence.
According to the latest Iowa polls, Richardson has moved into 4th place, with 13 percent of the vote there, behind Senators Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Edwards.
Edwards currently leads Clinton and Obama among Democratic Iowa voters.
Romney recently won the nonbinding GOP Iowa straw poll; although, Republican frontrunner and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani did not participate. On Thursday, Romney also reportedly picked up a win at the “all fluff and little substance” Illinois State Fair straw poll.
The GOP nomination is still wide open and Romney’s victory in Iowa came in a field that did not include Giuliani, Sen. John McCain of Arizona or former Sen. Fred Thompson of Tennessee, who is widely expected to announce his candidacy for president.
Among Valley presidential campaign donors, Romney currently leads all takers with at least $72,000 in funds raised to date, as recorded by “Open Secrets.org”.
Richardson has so far raised about $5,100 inside the county.
Sources have been tight-lipped about where Romney’s and Richardson’s fundraisers will be hosted, but organizers have said they likely will be both held next Tuesday in Wilson and Jackson.
For more on this developing story, read today’s Casper Star-Tribune.
[End of article]Gov. Bill Richardson is the only candidate from either party who has the credentials to lead our country out of the mess we face today. As Gov., ambassador to the UN, crisis negotiator through out the world,US House Representative, Energy Secretary under Clinton he has shown that he has the skills to begin to get us back on the right road from day one. All of the other candidates would need extensive on the job training.
I hope that you Montanans will take this opportunity to listen to what he has to say. He is a breath of fresh air in a too long campaign.
In what way does Richardson excel Romney? Romney made a business out of righting the screwups of other MBAs and turning around flagging corporations. All total, he helped bail out over 100 of them in his tenure at Bain Capital. Then he helped turn around a failing international event in the Olympics. And on top of that, the state of Massachusetts (as much as that state could be turned around...).
I'm not sure I want to had over the reigns to someone who made a habit of negotiating within the UN, which outside of condemning Israel, seems to accomplish precious little (if you want to call condemning Israel an accomplishment--I don't).
Unfortunately having an MBA and turning around flagging corporations are not credentials for running the last super power in the world. Money may make the world go round but it can not lead us out of the pit that our present administration has pushed us into!!
As far as Richardson and the UN---he stated that to facilitate a complete withdrawal from Iraq---he will utilize the UN to place an all Muslin force on the ground when we leave--all the Muslim nations agree that this would be the best stratidgy for getting out of this big mess.