The company that gave Mitt Romney his start in business helped give him his start in presidential politics last year when he earned $15 million from Bain Capital, "helping him expand his personal fortune and bankroll his campaign," write the Washington Post's John Solomon and Matthew Mosk.
Romney earns what's called "passive profit share" as a retired partner of Bain so long as he abides by "non-compete, non-hire and confidentiality obligations." Romney resigned from Bain in 1999 to run the Olympic games, and then placed his portfolio in a blind trust after being elected Massachusetts governor to avoid conflicts of interest (he doesn't control the investments).
"Nonetheless, Romney is now tapping the money and connections he gained in the private-equity world -- best known for corporate ego clashes and cutthroat leveraged buyouts -- to help finance his presidential aspirations." Romney received $196,000 in donations from at least 109 Bain employees and lent his campaign $8.9 million so far this year – spending that paid off at Ames this week. Including his investments, Romney is worth between $190 million and $250 million.
In the last word on Ames, Marc Ambinder takes some air of out of the story that Mike Huckabee won second place with no organization. In fact, the FairTax organization sent 20 buses to the straw poll and Huckabee was the only candidate to endorse its cause. Collusion between the two would be "legally questionable," but that doesn't mean Huckabee didn’t benefit from FairTax's efforts. Also, home school advocates car pooled to Ames and Huckabee had meetings with home-school parents. More importantly, Huckabee is a powerful orator and his campaign paid for 1,800 tickets and he only needed 2,600 to win second place.
Meanwhile, Rudy Giuliani is pushing hard on immigration after being attacked by Romney last week over New York City's hospitality to illegal immigrants, The Politico's Jonathan Martin writes. In response to Romney's charge, a Giuliani aide said that the Romney campaign "might want to figure out how to explain why the 'deputized' state troopers sitting in Governor Romney's driveway didn't catch the illegal immigrants busy doing his yardwork." Giuliani will announce his commitment on immigration today in South Carolina and appear on The O'Reilly Factor tonight.
In advance of the immigration roll-out, Giuliani padded his advisory panel with Homeland Security and INS officials, the Washington Times' Stephen Dinan reports. Giuliani also "sent out a press release yesterday pointing to his time as a federal prosecutor, when he called for more action on enforcing immigration law."
Also in South Carolina was John McCain, who in an interview with The State, said he most likely has to win two of the three early primary states to win the GOP nomination. McCain said he wouldn't talk more about his campaign troubles and maintained "we're doing fine." McCain said voters aren't yet engaged in the presidential campaign, but will be come September when they'll "gravitate toward his experience and command of the issues" – at the same time the Iraq progress report is delivered to the country.
On the Democratic side, the Los Angeles Times' Peter Nichols reports that Hillary Clinton "cites her experience as a compelling reason voters should make her president, but nearly 2 million pages of documents covering her White House years are locked up in a building here, obscuring a large swath of her record as first lady." Federal archivists don't expect them to be released until after the election.
Archivists must read all documents and "by law, must redact material that they determine contains classified information, invades a person's privacy, reveals trade secrets, reveals confidential advice from presidential advisors or raises other concerns specified in the records law." For instance, 1,000 pages involving Clinton's work on the health care plan have been "censored by archives staff because they include confidential advice and must be kept secret under a federal law called the Presidential Records Act." Still, the documents are the mother load of oppo research.
Meanwhile, the Washington Post's Perry Bacon Jr. notes that campaign aides to Barack Obama "didn't cite a specific example" of supposed criticism over whether Obama's "black enough" to be elected president, as his wife said is being asked about Obama. Earlier in the race some commentators asked the question.
Get these and today's other election stories at RCP's Politics and Elections page.
