Romney ('12 Campaign) Has $1.2M To Put Where Candidate's Mouth Is; Pays Consultants, Niece's Political Activities

Mitt Romney is taunting GOP front-runner Donald Trump, but will he put his 2012 campaign warchest where his mouth is? More than $1.2M is currently in the Romney For President bank accounts, and it continues to bring in $1.4M/year by renting his supporters' information. Most of the expenses continue to go to consultants, and he has covered some of his niece's political activities.

Romney for President ("RFP") starts 2016 with $1,263,244 in the bank. Federal election laws do

restrict how that money can be spent, but it is currently not being used to oppose the man Romney is calling a "phony" and a  "fraud".

Rather, RFP paid more than $400,000 last year to its list rental consultants and more than $400,000 to his compliance consultants (three years post-campaign).

The Committee did disburse $17,000 to other political causes in 2015: $4,000 to now-Speaker of the House (and Romney's running mate) Paul Ryan, $3,000 to New Hampshire Senator Kelly Ayotte and her state's Republican party.

The remaining $10,000 went to the mysteriously-named "NCW Fund", in Michigan.  After some research, Arizona's Politics discovered that the checks (there was also $2,500 sent there in 2014) went to the home of Romney niece Ronna Romney McDaniel. Romney McDaniel has been the National Committee Woman for the Michigan GOP. (She is now also the Chair of the Michigan GOP.)

Ms. Romney McDaniel confirms to Arizona's Politics that the contributions were to defray her travel expenses for RNC meetings and notes that there were no formal filing requirements of the thusly-named NCW Fund.  (There are federal regulations restricting Presidential campaigns from distributing monies to family members; however, it is very likely that they would not apply in this case because Romney did not accept matching funds and because the funds were for RNC-related expenses.)

  Mitt Romney 2015 Year End FEC Report

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