Romney puts top-tier GOP admission at $20 million

BERLIN, N.H. — Mitt Romney said Friday that presidential rivals Fred Thompson and Mike Huckabee need to raise a jaw-dropping $20 million in the next few months to join him in the top tier of the Republican GOP field, raising the stakes in a nomination fight altered by a tumultuous week.

Feeling the heat of his rivals, the former Massachusetts governor dismissed the notion that a late-entering Thompson and an up-and-coming Huckabee were poised to squeeze into the GOP top tier now occupied by Romney and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

"I think you're going to have to see what level of ground support that they have and what level of fund-raising they have," Romney said in an interview with The Associated Press. "If Huckabee raises $20 million this quarter, like we did in the (first) quarter, then he'll become a front-tier candidate."

"And I think from Thompson's standpoint, I think he certainly has to look at $20 million as sort of the — this is, if you will, the low hanging-fruit quarter for him," Romney said, adding that it's easier to raise money in the first weeks of a race when friends, family and allies are tapped.

Romney was trying to raise expectations. His $20 million challenge assumes that Thompson and Huckabee would need as much money to compete in the final four months of the race as Romney needed to jump-start and sustain a yearlong bid.

That may be a false assumption.

Thompson, Huckabee and a crowded field of fellow Republicans — including the not-to-be-underestimated John McCain — argue that momentum is as important as money in the post-Labor Day push.

Thompson — a former lobbyist, senator and actor — announced his candidacy this week and hopes a cascade of attention carries him past longer-running candidates just as voters are starting to pay attention.

"Money may be the primary rationale of Mitt Romney's campaign, but the rest of us know this election is about ideas and who has the best conservative message," said Thompson spokesman Todd Harris. "Fortunately for us that is something money can't buy."

Huckabee, a Baptist minister and former Arkansas governor, is the turtle in a race of rabbits, hoping to sneak up on the competition after finishing second in Iowa's straw poll and capping a series of solid debates with a scene-stealing performance Wednesday night.

"Even if we lose elections," he told anti-war candidate Ron Paul, "we should not lose our honor."