Expanding the Team and the Take: Team Romney Steals Another March

March 28, 2007— -- Campaign 2008 is going to cost money. A lot of money.

As the first quarter of official fundraising draws to a close, Sen. John McCain is laying the groundwork for defusing an expected disappointing haul. Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney are also playing the expectations game with each asserting that the other is better positioned to win the first money primary, and Fred Thompson and Newt Gingrich are telling everyone who will listen that early money isn't like yeast, and that it is in fact no longer all that important.

Did I mention Hillary is said to have raised $10 million last week alone?

The reality is that the money primary matters far more than all the opinion polls combined, and even more than the still young organizations being built in the early caucus and primary states.

Which is why Mitt Romney's latest innovation in the field of fundraising has eyebrows raised again.

I detailed in my new book, "A Mormon in the White House," the innovations Romney brought to the 2005-2006 cycle, including the first-ever use of state committees as a substitute for a single PAC. Romney thus outraised all of the other GOP contenders last year.

The book also went to press late enough to include notice of Romney's opening-day telethon that netted $7 million, a record-setting single-day tally.

Now at www.mittromney.com comes the latest innovation: rewarding the younger fundraisers who sign on to the effort with 10 percent of any funds raised above the first $1,000. Thus a student fundraiser who decides to work for Team Romney this summer and raises $50,000 for Romney will return to college having netted Romney $45,100 and with $4,900 in his or her own bank account.

Some faux outrage is making the rounds on the Web, but fundraisers have been keeping a cut of the take since fundraising was invented. Romney's decision to make it possible for young enthusiasts to join the campaign by giving them an opportunity to make some dough as well as a difference is first going to turn heads and then turn other campaigns to the very same tactic.

Hugh Hewitt is host of the nationally syndicated "Hugh Hewitt" show and author of "A Mormon in the White House? Ten Things Every American Should Know About Mitt Romney." He blogs at hughhewitt.com.