Nancy at Political Party Time Blog has this article on Mitt’s “Bowling with Mitt” Event.

This just came in from a trusted source: not an invitation, per se, but an invitation to be listed on an invitation from former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney–widely seen as a frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination in 2012, which provides a window on to how these events are organized.

Romney was trolling (deadline was yesterday) for hosts and co-hosts for an event benefiting his Political Action Committee,  Free & Strong America PAC, on Feb. 11, for bowling at Lucky Strike Lanes. His ask: raise or contribute $1,000 to be a host, $500 to be a co-host.

Romney has used the PAC to contribute to such candidates as the new senator from Massachusetts, Scott Brown, (Romney takes credit for Brown’s win here) as well as GOP leaders such as House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.)

I want you to be among the first to know about an upcoming event for the Free and Strong America PAC, featuring Gov. Romney.  On Wednesday, February 17th, Mitt will be in DC and is doing an event for his PAC at 7:00 pm.

I hope you will consider being a Host or Co-Host for this fun event – Bowling with Mitt.  The money raised will go toward the important efforts of Mitt’s Free and Strong America PAC to promote conservative causes and help Republican candidates in 2010.

Are you able to serve as a Host or Co-Host (and have your name listed on the invitation) for the “Bowling with Mitt” event on February 17th? The price to attend will be $150/person, and we are asking Hosts to raise or contribute $1,000 and Co-Hosts to raise or contribute $500.  If you are interested, please e-mail Gretchen Moss at gretchen@gretchenmoss.com, and let us know how you would like your name listed on the invitation. The deadline for getting names on the initial invitation is Monday, February 1st at 5:00 PM.  Please also forward this e-mail to any others that you think may be interested in Hosting or Co-Hosting.  Complete Event details are below:

Bowling with Mitt

and Celebrity Bowlers

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

7:00 pm

Lucky Strike Lanes

Gallery Place

701 7th Street NW
Second Floor

Washington, DC, 20001

Host: Give or raise $1,000

Co-Host: Give or raise $500

Attend: $150

I wanted to wait until after Scott Brown won the election before posting this article from The Daily Beast.  Many at Free Republic will be angry that The Daily Beast has credited Mitt for Scott Brown’s win, but they sure did lay out a pretty convincing case for Mitt’s involvement which one cannot easily lay aside.

Mitt Romney on Hannity at Scott Brown Victory Party

Here it is from The Daily Beast:

If Scott Brown pulls off an upset in the race to replace Ted Kennedy in the Senate, he may have Mitt Romney to thank. Samuel P. Jacobs on the 2012 GOP presidential hopeful’s hidden hand.

There are a number of forces driving Republican Scott Brown’s surprising surge in the Massachusetts special Senate election campaign. He’s benefiting from public anger over the Obama administration’s health-care reform plan. He’s buoyed by a tide of cash from around the country, donated by conservatives eager to send a message by upsetting Democratic front-runner Martha Coakley. And then there’s the lackluster campaign Coakley herself has run.

From the start, Brown has been counseled by members of the Shawmut Group, a Boston-based consulting firm that acts as the Romney political brain trust in exile.

Largely overlooked in assessing Brown’s prospects: the hidden hand of Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor headlined at a fundraiser for Brown last October.  And Romney has helped Brown raise money outside the state as well. “I know Scott and how determined he is to win. I’ve campaigned for him, raised money on his behalf, and we’re doing all we can to help him over the finish line,” Romney wrote supporters last Monday. Brown, 50, raised $1.3 million that day.

But lest anyone accuse Romney of being a Johnny-come-lately—stepping up only as Brown has vaulted from sacrificial lamb to serious threat—the 2008 presidential hopeful has lent crucial support behind the scenes from the start of Brown’s campaign. Ever since he entered the race to succeed the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, Brown has been counseled by members of the Shawmut Group, a Boston-based consulting firm that acts as the Romney political brain trust in exile. Among the many Romney disciples running Brown’s campaign are Beth Myers, the campaign manager of Romney’s presidential run; Eric Fehrnstrom, Romney’s chief spokesman; Peter Flaherty, Romney’s “go-to-guy for conservatives”; and Rob Cole, Romney’s 2008 deputy chairman manager. Beth Lindstrom, another player in Romney World, is working as Brown’s campaign manager. Lindstrom’s ties to Romney go back years; she started working with him in the Massachusetts State House as director of consumer affairs.

A Brown victory would be a huge upset—threatening the viability of Obama’s health-care plan and providing the GOP a burst of energy and confidence heading into the 2010 midterm elections this fall. It would also be a big boost for Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign. Up against a populist wave on the right that favors candidates like Sarah Palin, Romney can improve his appeal and influence by gaining the loyalty of newly elected officials. And Brown is hardly the only GOP contender Romney is helping. The Hill reported in September, Romney’s followers have spread throughout the country to help candidates in Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, and California. Most notable among them: Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman has a stable of Romney aides helping her try to her win the governor’s mansion in Sacramento.

Romney’s role is all the more interesting because he’s not exactly Brown’s ideological soulmate. One of the winning lines of the Brown campaign was his protestation that he can’t be tied to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. “I’m Scott Brown,” the state senator told the audience of the campaign’s only debate. “I’m from Wrentham. I drive a truck.”

Wrentham is best known for its shopping outlets. Romney, before recently decamping for New Hampshire, lived in Belmont, a tony Boston suburb, home to Harvard professors and families who send their kids to local private schools. Brown’s worked in state government since 1992; Romney made his name in private equity. Brown went to Boston College Law School, and Mitt Romney was schooled at Harvard Business School. They represent two different strands of American conservatism, or at least their New England versions.

But Romney intimates see similarities between the two.

“If you called central casting and said, ‘Give me the right candidate,’ you couldn’t get a better guy than Scott,” says Ron Kaufman, who is Massachusetts chairman of the Republican National Committee, an unofficial Brown adviser, and an adviser to Romney. Brown is married to a local newscaster and has one daughter at Syracuse; another is a former American Idol star and now plays Division I basketball at Boston College. Romney’s seemingly perfect profile—the looks, the clean-cut Mormon family—also elicited references to “central casting.”

“They are both happy warriors. They are both indefatigable. Both are kinds of policy wonks. Scott was very helpful to the governor with health care,” Kaufman says.

As Tuesday’s vote nears, Team Romney’s role in the Brown campaign is tumbling into the open. Talking to The Washington Post, strategist Eric Fehrnstrom trumpeted his campaign’s use of an ad featuring John F. Kennedy, Jr. and called the Coakley camp’s ensuing silence the turning point in the campaign.

“One thing it does say about Mitt is that his folks know how to run a campaign,” Kaufman says.

Democrats are not as psyched about the Romney crowd’s role in the Massachusetts special election; indeed, they’ve tried to make an issue of it. They point to his fingerprints on a negative ad about Coakley’s tax policy, paid for by an out-of-state group, the American Future Fund. The 30-second spot was produced by Larry McCarthy, who is famous for the “Willie Horton” ad. He too was a Romney hand in 2008.

“The Romney playbook is being used again,” says Boston-based Democratic strategist Mary Anne Marsh. She did not intend the comment as a compliment.

For Marsh, that playbook means a sharp turn to the right to attract support from national conservatives and what she calls “selective amnesia” about past legislative efforts or associates. Brown’s been hit by the Democrats for supporting an amendment which would have allowed hospital workers to refuse emergency conception to rape victims on account of religious beliefs. They’ve also pointed Brown’s effort to distance himself from out-of-state Tea Party groups.

Andrew Sullivan, for instance, wrote that he sees various contortions in Brown’s economic policies and found a “Romney-like cynicism” in a recent Boston Globe op-ed authored by the candidate.

The upside for Brown is that Romney’s team has a proven track record of success in statewide campaigns in the state. And that team has stayed remarkably cohesive through Romney’s post-gubernatorial career. That stands in marked contrast to the crackup John McCain’s aides went through following their losing 2008 campaign. And that, Romney supporters say, bodes well not only for Brown—but also for Romney’s White House chances in 2012.

“When you read the new book Game Change,” says the Republican strategist Kaufman, “the one thing that impresses you is how loyal the Obama folks were to their guy in a cycle where that was not the strong suit. The truth is the same with the Romney folks. They are dead loyal to their guy.”

Samuel P. Jacobs is a staff reporter at The Daily Beast. He has also written for The Boston Globe, The New York Observer, and The New Republic Online.

MILWAUKEE — Former Massachusetts Gov. and potential presidential candidate Mitt Romney visited Milwaukee Thursday.

He promoted his new book and held a fundraiser for his political action committee.

He also sat down for a one-on-one interview with WISN 12 News’ Mike Gousha for this weekend’s edition of Upfront.

Gousha: I’m sure there are people who say he’s obviously running for president again; he’s just getting an early start on it.

Romney: I’m doing what’s necessary if you will; keep options open. But the decision to actually go ahead with a presidential run, that’s not something that I would really contemplate until after the November ’10. At that point you begin thinking about what’s the right thing to do.

Romney: Clearly if President Obama happened to be doing a great job as I hoped he would do when he got elected, that would influence my thoughts. But he’s taken this country in a very dangerous direction, and that makes it far more likely that folks are going to think about getting in and removing him from office.

Romney: Look, the fact that this recession is going to end and we’re going to come out of it is something every economist in America and in the world has said is going to happen. The question is did the stimulus work as well as it could have worked, and the answer is no.

Romney doesn’t believe that the president deserves credit for the economic recovery.

He also called Obama an apologist for the U.S.

Romney said that his political action committee will use the money it raised in Milwaukee to support Republican candidates across the country, in particular a couple of key governor’s races, Wisconsin’s not included.

To listen to the inerview, click here.

I think it is correct to say, at this stage, that Mitt Romney is already in the race. Given the recent article from the Boston Globe, and now this one from Politico…. you draw your own conclusions.

By Johnathan Martin

Mitt Romney’s Opening Moves This Fall

While he remains publicly coy about the possibility of another White House bid, Mitt Romney has a calendar that tells a very different story.

From returning to a key early primary state to delivering an address before a social conservative conference and reuniting with members of his campaign-in-waiting, Romney is scheduled to spend a good deal of his September in a fashion befitting a man very much interested in running for president.

Romney has been careful to avoid being overexposed this year, instead picking his spots to weigh in with an op-ed or talk show appearance when the national debate turns to health care, the auto industry

or some other issue on which he’s well-versed.

But despite the relatively low media exposure, Romney has not ignored the importance of building and keeping his political contacts, especially in Washington.

To this end, the former Massachusetts governor will spend much of the middle of this month in and around the capital for a series of events aimed at retaining or building support with a number of valuable constituencies in a Republican primary.

On Saturday, Sept. 19, Romney will speak at the Values Voters Summit, an annual conference in the capital, put on by the Family Research Council, that frequently draws GOP presidential hopefuls.

Before the conference, Romney is holding a pair of events for his political action committee, Free and Strong America, that will bring him back together with some of his most loyal supporters and a few new faces.

First, on Thursday night, Romney is holding a $1,000-per-person fundraiser at a trendy Washington restaurant. Co-hosts include a number of Romney stalwarts such as former campaign counsel Ben Ginsberg and high-powered lobbyists Ron Kaufman, Drew Maloney, Al Cardenas and Jack Gerard.

Also on the host list are two of John McCain’s top donors from the 2008 campaign, Wayne Berman and Fred Malek. Both are veteran GOP fundraising dynamos who would be significant assets to a 2012 Romney presidential run. Contacted by POLITICO, Berman and Malek each praised the former governor but indicated it was too early to make presidential commitments.

Later that night, Romney is scheduled to rejoin scores of his former campaign aides for a low-dollar Sundaes With Mitt event, at which he’s expected to dish out ice cream alongside some “special guest scoopers.”

“In 2008, Mitt did events for 33 federal candidates running for office and 37 surrogate events for Sen. McCain and Gov. Palin,” Charlie Spies, Romney’s former campaign CFO, wrote in an e-mail last week about the event. “In addition, the Free and Strong America PAC made contributions to over 150 contests at the federal and state level.”

Spies and his wife, Lisa, are hosting the dairy-themed Romney reunion at their downtown Washington condo, where there also may be some former aides to other 2008 GOP candidates in attendance.

On Friday, Romney heads across the Potomac to Alexandria for a breakfast fundraiser benefiting the reelection campaign of Virginia Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling, an early supporter and state chairman of the former governor’s 2008 bid.

The day after the Values Voters event, Romney is keynoting a $500-per-person afternoon reception at the Great Falls, Va., home of former solicitor general Ted Olson for Barbara Comstock, a Romney adviser now running for state delegate.

On that Monday, Romney will deliver a foreign policy address at a Washington conference put on by the hawkish Foreign Policy Initiative. Romney’s speech will come at a luncheon during what the group is billing as an event in support of “advancing and defending democracy.”

At night, he will raise money for Bob McDonnell, the GOP’s gubernatorial candidate in Virginia, at an evening reception in Washington.

But Romney’s not just tending to old relationships and building new ones inside the Beltway.

On Sept. 22, he’ll head to Atlanta – a major Republican fundraising hub – to raise money for Georgia’s House Republican caucus.

And that weekend, the son of a former Michigan governor will return to his childhood state to keynote the annual Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference, a heavily attended activist event on a picturesque island near the Upper Peninsula. In 2007, Romney used the same conference to offer a critical assessment of his own party and won the straw poll. He later carried the state during the GOP primary.

Asked about the flurry of political activity by Romney — who is also writing a future-oriented book titled “No Apology: The Case for American Greatness” — spokesman Eric Fehrnstrom suggested the fast pace wouldn’t be limited to September.

“Summer’s over,” Fehrnstrom said. “With 2010 right around the corner, there’s a lot of work to do, which means more travel, more fundraising and more campaigning.”

All of which, of course, could redound to Romney’s benefit should he run again for president in 2012.

Original article can be found at Politico.com