7 Utahns among top donors for Mitt

Seven Utahns are among the heavy-hitters nationwide raising money for GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, according to a list released by the campaign Tuesday.

Most of the Utahns on the list have already been associated with the Romney campaign, including the only one of the campaign's eight national finance chairmen from the state, John Miller, chief executive officer and co-owner of National Beef Packing Co.

While Miller's company is based in Kansas, he grew up in Cache Valley and has an office in Salt Lake City. Both Miller and Romney have homes in Deer Valley and became fast friends after meeting in the mid-1990s, when Romney first purchased land at the ski area.

"It's a heartfelt thing," Miller told the Deseret Morning News on Tuesday about his first involvement in a political campaign. "Mitt Romney is probably the most capable leader I've ever met."

Miller, who last May helped organize a Romney fund-raising event in downtown Salt Lake City to coincide with the Republican presidential candidates' first debate in California, declined to say how much money he has collected for the campaign.

But Miller said he has volunteered "quite a bit of time" and canvassed his contacts around the nation for cash over the past year and a half. "I'll probably never do this again in my lifetime," he said. "This was never something I was looking to do."

Miller is serving as what the campaign calls a regional fund-raising leader alongside other national finance chairmen and chairwomen, including Meg Whitman, the president and chief executive officer of eBay, and former U.S. Ambassador Mel Sembler, a shopping-center developer in Florida.

The other Utahns on the list of fund-raisers released Tuesday are considered national finance co-chairmen, focused more on collecting contributions within the state, according to the campaign.

They are Jonathan Bullen, owner and president of Provo College, Eagle Gate College and Evolution Fitness; Spence Eccles, the former head of First Security Bank; Kem Gardner, another longtime Romney friend and founder of The Gardner Co., which employs Romney's son, Josh; Jon Huntsman Sr., the billionaire industrialist and philanthropist; Don Peay, founder of Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife; and Blake Roney, chairman of Nu Skin Enterprises.

Huntsman told the Deseret Morning News in January that he wouldn't solicit contributions from Utahns. His son, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., is backing another GOP presidential candidate, Arizona Sen. John McCain.