One week before he is to be formally nominated for president, Mitt Romney spent Tuesday in the respective turfs of two past Republican nominees who went all the way to the White House: George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush - all the while raising roughly $7 million in only one day, according to reports from NBC News.
The 2012 nominee-to-be arrived at the Houstonian Hotel in Houston, Texas, where the elder Bush got his start as two-term U.S. representative and two-time U.S. Senate nominee in the Lone Star State. From there, Romney went to Midland, where the younger Bush ran his own business in the 1970???s and made his first run for office as the Republican nominee for U.S. representative in 1978.
Although Texas??? electoral votes are considered a lock for Romney this fall, his mission to the state was fund-raising. In Midland, he attended a $10,000-per-couple fund-raising event (in which contributors get a photograph with Romney), a $2500-per-person reception at the Petroleum Club, and then a $50,000-per-person dinner at a private residence. To date, the Romney campaign "has extracted $13.9 million dollars in contributions from Texas," states the NBC News report.
There are no indications as to whether either of the Bushes joined Romney during his swing through the state. Private fund-raising events are off-limits to reporters.
