BYU NewsNet - Romney Campaign Gets Creative

Former Gov. Mitt Romney's presidential campaign is using more than $17 million of his own money. While this amount is only a small portion of Romney's fortune, it's more than triple the amount that any other candidate is personally contributing.

According to www.opensecrets.com, an organization dedicated to holding politicians accountable for campaign financing and spending, Romney has raised more than any other Republican candidate. Yet despite this, Romney is self-financing 28 percent of his campaign. Former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Sen. John McCain, and former Gov. Mike Huckabee are self-financing under 1 percent of their campaigns.

Steve Stakland, administrative assistant for the Romney Regional Finance Office, said Romney's personal contribution is a great strength to his campaign.

"It shows the people contributing that he's also putting his money where his mouth is," Stakland said. "People donating see that as, 'hey we're donating, but so is he.'"

To keep Romney's fundraising high and the campaign competitive, his campaign has had to branch out to new people and develop new ways to raise money.

"This campaign has so many creative ways to raise money." Stakland said. "I know one thing the campaign did was an eBay thing where you could auction things off and whatever you sold it for would go to the campaign."

BYU students are also getting involved in Romney's campaign effort through the Romney call center at 746 E. 820 North in Provo. Here students can come any time between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. and help make phone calls before key primary elections.

"The idea is to get the vote out for Romney, and just create awareness," Stakland said.

According to Stakland, most days average 10-15 volunteers, half of which are BYU students. Combined with other Romney call centers across the nation, volunteers like these make more than 85,000 phone calls.

BYU graduate student William B. Tayler is also coming up with ways to raise money for the Romney campaign. Tayler, now an assistant professor of accounting at the Emory Goizueta Business School in Atlanta, Ga., launched the Web site www.MatchingForMitt.com.

According to a news release, the site allows people to match each other's donations dollar for dollar and contribute to the campaign.

"Every day, ordinary people must participate in the campaign process if they want their candidate to succeed," Tayler said in a news release.

Students and community members who wish to get involved in Romney's campaign effort can visit the call center listed above or e-mail Eli Eyre at eeyre@mittromney.com.