That’s why the most noteworthy contribution Mitt Romney’s Commonwealth PAC has received so far may be the relatively modest $5750 given by Bob Perry on November 3. Why? Perry, a mega-successful home builder in Houston, is the man who spent $4.5 million funding the Swift Boat Veterans’ attacks on John Kerry in 2004. This year, Perry spent another $6.5 million on the midterm elections — including half a million, which he gave to the Romney-chaired Republican Governors Association. Perry has never given to McCain’s Straight Talk America PAC.
Romney will be playing hardball; at least, that’s the message some are taking from last week’s news that top-tier Republican consultant Alex Castellanos has signed on as a Romney advisor, and will likely be chief media strategist for Romney’s presidential campaign.
Castellanos is considered perhaps the most aggressive (read: amoral) ad-maker in the business. Among his more notorious spots is one featuring a white man crumpling up a job-rejection letter, while the voice-over explains that, because of affirmative action, the job had gone to a less-qualified minority. Castellanos should have a blast with McCain’s immigration bill.
Romney’s got a long way to go: he’s in the single digits in most polls, and conservative support is still widely split. Ferrara, for instance, is holding out for a Newt Gingrich candidacy, while Keating hopes South Carolina governor Mark Sanford will run. Romney needs to convince folks like them that he is the Anyone-But-McCain candidate.
Last Sunday on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, McCain tried gamely to walk the ideological tightrope on gay rights, abortion, tax cuts, and campaign finance. But over on Fox News Sunday, conservatives got an ’08 assessment from their intellectual guru, Newt Gingrich. “There is a yearning for a clearer voice of conservatism,” Gingrich said, after listing his problems with McCain. “And I think that Mitt Romney has an opportunity to fill that.”
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