This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
BOSTON - Stung by his second major defeat, Mitt Romney's presidential campaign tried to reclaim momentum Wednesday with a dial-a-thon aimed at raising enough cash to keep its efforts going through the Feb. 5 Super Duper Tuesday primaries.
By the end of the day, the campaign said it had brought in an estimated $5 million from 10,000 donors, though under federal rules $3.5 million of that can only be spent if Romney secures the Republican nomination. The cash infusion comes none too soon, apparently.
Romney decided to pull his advertising from South Carolina and Florida, seen by some as campaign wobbles after second-place showings in Iowa and New Hampshire.
''We feel the best strategy is to focus our paid messaging in Michigan,'' Romney spokesman Kevin Madden told The Associated Press in explaining the decision.
Michigan's primary, on Tuesday, is next up on the election calendar and it is one that Romney has been polling well in. He was born in the state and his father, George Romney, served as its governor.
The decision to go dark in the important primary states of South Carolina and Florida was a dramatic change in strategy. Romney had been spending about $280,000 per week in South Carolina, which holds its Republican primary Jan. 19. He spent $3 million there last year, the AP reported. In Florida, Romney had been spending $160,000 per week and had spent $2.5 million in 2007.
Just hours after losing to John McCain in New Hampshire, Romney's campaign moved to Boston to stage a replay of last year's National Call Day, where he brought in pledges of about $6.5 million in less than eight hours.
Romney told a crowd of nearly 500 supporters gathered in the Grand Ballroom of the Boston Convention Center that he is still the best hope for Republicans to hold onto the White House.
"I have won more votes for president than any other candidate," he said. "And we have more delegates than any other candidate. . . . It's just getting started."
Romney holds 30 delegates, according to a count by CNN, more than the other GOP candidates, thanks to a victory in the Wyoming caucuses.
Strategist Alex Gage painted Romney's second-place finish in New Hampshire as a "tremendous rally" from polls showing a much bigger gap. "To come back from a double-digit deficit to finish just 5 points behind John McCain is a tremendous achievement," he said in a memo.
But callers at Wednesday's fundraising event faced a difficult situation trying to raise money in the shadow of an election loss. Still, they were hard at it.
"People are obviously concerned," said John Miller, a Utahn and one of six national finance committee chairmen for Romney. "But there's an underlying momentum with the governor that is keeping everyone going."
"I don't think there's a single person in this room who doesn't believe Mitt [will] get the nomination," he said.
Another Utahn, Kem Gardner, a close friend of Romney's, said early Wednesday he was getting close to his goal and everything was going well.
"As long as he's soldiering on, we're with him," he said.