Race to Corral Campaign Rainmakers for 2012

By NEIL KING JR. And BRODY MULLINS

WASHINGTON—The GOP's money primary is heating up.

For months, only two likely Republican candidates for the 2012 presidential campaign—former governors Mitt Romney and Tim Pawlenty—were actively recruiting wealthy Republicans to raise money for them. But in recent weeks, other potential GOP candidates have begun courting the party's top bankrollers.

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Associated Press

Indiana Gov. Daniels, left, and Mississippi Gov. Barbour are both seen as potential GOP presidential candidates.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is now calling wealthy Republicans to ask them to "keep their powder dry," as one donor put it, until he decides whether he will run. Mr. Barbour traveled Wednesday to the early-primary state of South Carolina to meet with prominent Republicans.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota and former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania also have stepped up their conversations recently with potential donors, according to Republican operatives and fund-raisers.

In Indiana, some of Gov. Mitch Daniels's supporters have made calls to assess what backing he might expect among top fund-raisers, according to several large donors.

"They are lining up like ducks on the water: It looks placid on top, but underneath they are moving like hell," said Stan Anderson, a Republican strategist.

Republican voters won't cast the first votes in the GOP's 2012 nominating contests until next year, and so far, none of the likely major GOP candidates have officially jumped into the ring. Until a candidate formally launches a presidential campaign, it is illegal to raise campaign contributions.

Several of the potential candidates have political accounts that allow them to raise money for travel costs, pay a skeletal staff and donate to other candidates. But more important is the battle to sign up big "bundlers," who promise to raise money for the campaigns once they are officially launched.

Bundlers are prized more than individual donors, who by law can give only up to about $2,400 to a candidate for the primaries. Bundlers face the same cap, but after reaching the individual limit, they raise donations from business associates and others to give candidates a large sum in one "bundle."

President Barack Obama is expected to start raising money in March or April for the 2012 election, Democratic officials have said. Republican candidates hoping to challenge him will need about $30 million in the bank by the end of the year to fund efforts in the early nominating states, GOP strategists and donors say.

"What a candidate wants to know now is who he can depend on if he indeed declares," said Sam Fox, a St. Louis-based investor and one of the GOP's biggest fund-raisers. "There is an old saying in the game: 'All things being equal, he who has the most money wins.' " Mr. Fox says he has committed to a candidate but wouldn't disclose his choice.

Thus far, Mr. Romney appears to have coaxed the most major bundlers to his side, working off an extensive network established in his unsuccessful 2008 campaign. Mr. Romney's efforts are being organized by Spencer Zwick, a Salt Lake City native who is close to the Romney family. Mr. Zwick is a managing partner at Solamere Capital, an investment fund he founded with one of Mr. Romney's sons.

For the past two years, Mr. Zwick has worked unofficially to create the skeleton of a campaign operation that can spring to life as soon as Mr. Romney formally begins a 2012 campaign. Much of Mr. Zwick's efforts have been focused on seeking fund-raising commitments in a series of private dinners and one-on-one talks with wealthy and influential Republicans.

One of them, Georgette Mosbacher, said she attended a dinner Mr. Romney hosted for about 40 major fund-raisers at the '21' Club in Manhattan before Thanksgiving. Ms. Mosbacher, who says she raised $800,000 for Republican John McCain's 2008 campaign, hasn't decided whom she will support.

Mr. Romney scored two major coups last year by signing up Republican lobbyist Wayne Berman and Wall Street investor Lewis Eisenberg to raise money for him. The two men together raised more than $1 million for Mr. McCain's 2008 bid.

Mr. Romney "is doing what smart, well-organized candidates do: meeting with the significant fund-raisers in small groups or one at a time to describe his vision for the future," said Mr. Berman.

Some other potential 2012 Republican contenders, particularly former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, have shown they can raise large sums from small donors across the country, and they may not need a big network of wealthy backers. Less than 25% of the $5.4 million that Ms. Palin has raised for her political action committee—funds that can't be used for a presidential campaign—has come from donations larger than $200.

Mr. Pawlenty, the former Minnesota governor, has been courting big donors as he tours the country promoting a new memoir. He has hosted dozens of sessions, which his organization calls "friend-raisers," to deepen ties with potential bundlers.

Fewer bundlers have so far committed to Mr. Pawlenty than to Mr. Romney, according to interviews with an array of GOP donors. Vin Weber, a Pawlenty adviser and former Republican lawmaker, said, "We are more in the show-and-tell phone phase than we are in the close-the-deal phase." Mr. Pawlenty chalked up a win when he signed on a former Romney strategist, Phil Musser, as a top adviser.

Though Indiana's Mr. Daniels won't make a decision for months, several of his loyalists have been quietly testing the waters for him. They include Republican lobbyist Charlie Black; Al Hubbard, an economic policy advisor to President George Bush; and Tom Bell, a board member at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

In an interview, Mr. Daniels said he wasn't actively "feeling anyone out'' for help in raising money, though it was possible that "some folks are out there free-lancing" on his behalf.

For all the outreach now under way, there are many bundlers who remain deeply ambivalent over whom to support in the race. Some say they are torn because they have known many of the potential contenders for so long. Others say that Mr. Obama's shift to the center has made it more uncertain who is best positioned to beat the president.

"I, for one, think that Obama is going to be hugely formidable and is in no way a weakened candidate," said Brian Ballard, a Tallahassee-based lobbyist who served as Mr. McCain's Florida finance chairman for the 2008 campaign. He said he hasn't committed to any potential 2012 contender, despite being peppered with phone calls from the Romney and Pawlenty camps.

One of Mr. McCain's biggest bundlers from 2008, longtime Virginia GOP operative Bobbie Kilberg, says she has committed to raise money for Mr. Barbour if he runs. If he doesn't, she's not sure whom she will back. But she has no doubts, she said, that Mr. Romney "is going to have all the money he needs to run."

Write to Neil King Jr. at neil.king@wsj.com and Brody Mullins at brody.mullins@wsj.com