By:
Chris Coates
Josh Romney said
his dad's presidential campaign decided to hold its first Southern Illinois
fund-raiser in Edwardsville for a simple reason: the state's primary is now
just eight months away.
"I guess we would be here in February," Romney said Friday at the Madison
County Republican headquarters in Edwardsville.
Romney was in town for a $100-a-plate fund-raiser lunch at Bully's Smokehouse
for his father, former Massachusetts governor and GOP presidential candidate
Mitt Romney.
The campaign for several months has primarily focused on key battleground and
primary states, but a move by Illinois lawmakers last month shifting the
state's primary back six weeks suddenly made Illinois a much more important
target for presidential hopefuls. The primary is now Feb. 5, the same date on
which 20 other states are holding elections.
"Now that Illinois has moved up to the 'super duper Tuesday,' he's in sooner
now than he would have been had we not moved it," said state Sen. Dan
Rutherford (R-Pontiac), Romney's Illinois chairman.
The campaign has held events in Chicago, although this
was the first in the southern portion of the state, Rutherford said.
Josh Romney, 31, has also been heavily campaigning in Iowa, where he plans to
drive the "Mitt Mobile," a 30-foot-long motor home plastered in campaign
colors, to all 99 counties there before the vital January caucus.
The early campaigning is apparently netting some results: while Mitt Romney
does not carry the same name-brand cache as conservative candidates former New
York Mayor Rudy Giuliani or Arizona's U.S. Sen. John McCain, polls show he is
starting to gain in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Josh Romney credits the bigger recognition to campaign events such as the one
Friday in Edwardsville.
"My dad's spent a lot of time in (Iowa and New Hampshire) and we've seen our
poll numbers rise tremendously in those states," he said. "I think the key is
to get out as much as you can."
He said the idea is to get supporters to see his dad as a person, not just
another candidate angling for the White House.
"It helps them to get to know him better -- his personal side," he said.
The event, for which attendees could pay an additional $150 to meet with Josh
Romney personally, was not open to the media, but Madison County Republican
Party Chairman R. Jason Plummer said that about 30 people signed up.
He said the fund-raiser clearly benefits local GOP voters, even though the
primary shift was intended to help Illinois U.S. Sen. Barack Obama in his
Democratic presidential bid.
"At the end of the day, we all benefit," Plummer said. "It's been a while
since a presidential campaign stopped in Illinois."
