Mitt Romney to get Chris Christie and his donors
| Washington
Mitt Romney is not only hoovering up all of Chris Christie's donors. is reporting that Christie is going to throw his weight behind Romney too.
Last week, when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie put what seemed in his presidential campaign coffin, once breathing hard for a Christie bid.
In the very short term, Romney is winning that race - and it鈥檚 not even close.
From around the web, here are some top donors hoovered up by the Romney camp and why they matter:
- Paul Singer: A top get nationwide, Singer - a financial services executive who brings 鈥減olicy chops鈥� to the table as the head of the conservative Manhattan Institute - is one of the nation鈥檚 biggest GOP bundlers, . (What鈥檚 a bundler, you ask? NPR did , but in short bundlers not only cut their own checks to a candidate - they have a proven ability to get others in their network to put up their own money, too.)
- Ken Langone: The co-founder of Home Depot was a major Christie backer and carries serious financial heft, as .
- James Lee, Jr. and John A. Catsimatidis: The that Lee, a JPMorgan executive and Catsimatidis, a supermarket magnate, were both big hitters for George Bush鈥檚 election efforts (Lee to the tune of $500,000.)
- The end of the Christie speculation may have also eased Romney鈥檚 ability to pick up more of former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty鈥檚 one-time backers. Ray Washburne, a Dallas real estate/restaurant mogul has piled on to Team Romney along with Pawlenty, Washburne鈥檚 one-time candidate of choice.
- And for good measure, Romney picked up disaffected Obama donors Daniel Loeb and Clifford Asness, prominent (which equals 鈥渕ega wealthy鈥�) hedge fund managers. Asness鈥� purchase of a $700 bottle of wine at a dinner with Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan (R) generated a tiny tempest in the Washington teapot .
Why does this matter? For all intents and purposes, these donors are the GOP establishment. Getting them behind Romney鈥檚 candidacy doesn鈥檛 guarantee success - but there are only so many megabucks political donors to go around. Lining them up not only deprives Romney鈥檚 chief competitor, Rick Perry, of donor oxygen but makes it even harder for an insurgent candidate like Herman Cain or Ron Paul to gain traction.
Talk back to Decoder:
- In our survey, we could only find one Christie-Perry donor connection: . If you find others, .
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