Mitt Romney's fundraising phenomenon

SALT LAKE CITY — The first time Mitt Romney ran for president, he had raised $23 million by April of 2007 — more than any other Republican contender.

But in this election cycle, Romney is approaching things much more deliberately. At the beginning of this April, for example, Romney's presidential campaign had technically raised, well, nothing. In fact, no Romney campaign even existed until April 11, when the former Massachusetts governor announced the formation of his presidential exploratory committee.

But the wait for the vaunted Romney money machine to kick into high gear ended shortly after last month's big announcement. On April 12, Romney held a fundraiser at New York City's Harvard Club that attracted the upper crust of the financial sector. This week Romney again exhibited an Empire State of Mind with his fundraiser Tuesday in the City that Wall Street millionaires and hedge-fund heavyweights attended in droves. Later this month, Romney will host a phone-bank fundraiser in Las Vegas.

Reporting Sunday on the state of the GOP presidential field, the New York Times didn't mince words in declaring, "So far, only (Romney) has assembled a strong bench of the top Republican financiers." For Romney, the million-dollar question is one of how to maximize that financial leverage.

The New York and Las Vegas events are all part of a plan for Romney to generate $50 million by early summer, a significant chunk of change considering that Romney raised $59.8 million for the entire 2007-08 election cycle. If Romney hits his ambitious goal, he will stay solvent throughout the Republican primaries but still remain miles behind the record-shattering $1 billion Pres. Barack Obama hopes to marshal for his re-election campaign.

During the last presidential election, Romney couldn't sustain his initial fundraising momentum. After he raised $23.4 million during the first three months of 2007, donations to his campaign declined during each of the next three quarters while the amount of money he loaned to his campaign increased at each interval. And when the dust finally settled at the end of 2008, Romney's campaign had not only chewed through nearly $60 million in contributions but also $44.7 million of Mitt's own money.

Chances are, this time around Romney will once again rely heavily on Utah donors. Romney raised an unprecedented $5.5 million in Utah during 2007-08 — placing the Beehive State behind only California on the list of states that contributed the most money to Romney's campaign.