Romney Will Not Seek Millions He Loaned to His Campaign
July 17th, 2008 1:01 PM Eastern
by Shushannah Walshe
embeds.blogs.foxnews.com
Mitt Romney will not seek to be repaid for the 45 million dollars of personal loans that he made to his presidential campaign. The funds were the largest personal contribution by a candidate made during the primaries, but he will not ask or fundraise for donations to repay the debt.
The former presidential candidate’s Press Secretary, Eric Fehrnstrom said Romney’s “priority right now is raising money for other Republicans.” He has been actively campaigning for John McCain and speculation continues to rage that he will be the GOP nominee’s Vice-Presidential pick.
Fehrnstrom confirmed that he is not trying to recoup the funds and will write a letter to the Federal Election Committee explaining his decision, “At some point, the Romney loans will be reclassified as contributions. The way that will happen is the Governor will write a letter forgiving the outstanding loans,” Fehrnstrom explained through an e mail message, “That will occur around the time Romney for President is ready to shut down, when all the bills are paid and the books are balanced.”
The Romney camp still has no specific date set for when this will happen.
During his failed presidential bid, Romney also raised more than 65 million dollars from donors and his ability to fundraise is one way he could help McCain as his running mate and a reason that is used to boost his chances as a Vice-Presidential pick. Yesterday, on Fox News Romney refused to tell Martha MacCallum if he was discussing the number two slot with the GOP nominee-in –waiting, “We talk about a wide array of topics, and I enjoy talking to him, but there is no speculation to report on that.”
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton also donated her own funds to her campaign lending 12.2 million dollars to her presidential bid, but she is actively seeking donations to help get the money back. Barack Obama has even asked supporters to help pay down her debt, coming under fire when many asked why they should help pay back money she used to attack the candidate they support.
Important to note, though, the personal wealth of the two politicians are drastically different. Romney’s fortune is estimated at 250 million dollars, while Clinton’s wealth is estimated to be between 10 and 50 million dollars,. |
