From National Journal’s Cameron Joseph:
While he has been publicly noncommittal about running for president next year, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels has quietly reignited his fundraising machine.
Beginning late last year, the two-term Republican flipped the switch on a long-dormant political committee, Aiming Higher, that is qualified to accept donations in unlimited amounts. Since late last year, he has raked in more than $675,000 in contributions from individuals and organizations across the country, including $250,000 from the American Federation for Children, a group that promotes school vouchers. Meanwhile, Daniels’s better-known political fundraising arm, the Aiming Higher PAC, raised $2.2 million last year, when the term-limited Daniels was not on the ballot.
According to a new report from the National Institute on Money in State Politics, the haul puts Daniels ahead of every other potential presidential candidate when it came to fundraising from state-level PACs. Only former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney came close; his state PACs raised a combined $1.6 million. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s state PACs raised $337,000.
Full story here.
Some Mitt Romney contributors told Politico that Romney’s $10.25 million fundraising haul Monday would send a message to Mitch Daniels that he couldn’t compete.
Daniels laughed off the threat the following morning. “I guarantee you that if we did it, I think we’d have the best letterhead and plenty of money,” Daniels said to reporters. “I just don’t think these things get settled by money. … I think it’s going to be a lot more about the quality of ideas.”