Romney raises money for Bennett

Utahns still really, really like Mitt Romney. And that's good for Sen. Bob Bennett.

At an event held to promote Bennett's re-election, the largely elderly audience gathered Tuesday morning at the Rose Wagner Center jumped to their feet when Romney was introduced.

Just minutes earlier, only a few dozen people had stood up when Bennett took the stage for what was billed as "A Conversation About the Future" between the Republican senator and Romney, the former leader of the Olympics in Salt Lake City and a GOP candidate for president in 2008.

Bennett, who said he expects his race for a fourth term in the Senate to be his toughest ever, also got some financial help from Romney. About $225,000 was expected to be raised for Bennett's campaign war chest at a lunchtime fundraiser at Little America featuring Romney.

While the invitation-only event at the theater was free, Utahns paid a minimum of $1,000 to see Romney and $2,400 for a private meeting and photograph.

Romney said repeatedly he has yet to make up his mind about running again for president in 2012. It's a decision he said he isn't going to make until after the midterm elections.

But he still told the theatre audience of 500 or so he knows he can count on "having my friends give me a great boost if that ever happens."

Romney won a whopping 90 percent of the vote in Utah's GOP presidential primary last year and collected some $6 million from residents of the state for his campaign.

Using his national "Free & Strong" political action committee, Romney has been traveling the country since the election in support of fellow Republicans, including Bennett.

At the Rose Wagner event, Romney praised Bennett as one of the "revolutionaries" who, like the nation's founders, believe in the strength of the people rather than government.

"We're the party of revolutionaries. They're the party of monarchists that believe in big government," Romney said. "We believe the people are supreme in this land."

Among the questions submitted in advance for the pair was one for Bennett, asking why voters shouldn't replace everyone in Congress right now, including him.

Bennett said he understood the anger with the government. But, he said, "this is not a time for rookies." He also repeatedly cited President Barack Obama's lack of experience and warned the world's economic markets "cannot stabilize in a time of uncertainty."