Sunday, April 01, 2007

The Romney for Governor Committee — the official campaign organization of Mitt Romney — kept on rolling last year, even though Romney’s successful gubernatorial campaign had ended. The committee took in just over $1.5 million in contributions in 2003, and spent $821,391.44.

So how did the campaign committee manage to spend $820,000 without a campaign to worry about until November 2006? Well, you gotta spend money to make money. "The cost of fundraising is where most of our money went," says Alex Dunn, Romney’s deputy chief of staff, who heads the committee.

[...]

Salaries: $120,000. This includes about $31,000 for Dunn, $46,500 for finance director Michelle Bernstein, and $20,000 for Taggart Romney, the governor’s son. "He stayed on for a few months to get things in order" after the election, says Dunn. "Just at the beginning of the year, through the transition." In fact, Taggart received a regular check, for more than $1500 per month, through September — 10 months after the election.