"Last year, both Mitt Romney and Marco Rubio — then a long-shot candidate for Senate — held marquee events. Romney wasn’t officially running for office, but the one-time Massachusetts governor held a “Stars and Strikes: Bowling with Mitt” event that was hosted by more than a dozen prominent K Street names. Rubio, who was a CPAC keynote speaker that year, raised money with help from several lobbyists at Ruth’s Chris Steak House.
But this year, neither is doing a fundraising event, and Republican lobbyists and fundraisers say they aren’t the only ones who aren’t trying to cash in.
In part, the decline of money events can be traced to the controversy surrounding the three-day event that starts Thursday, according to K Street sources and Republican aides. More than a dozen sources declined to comment for the record about the fundraising decline, citing concerns about speaking publicly about CPAC, but one aide said recent publicity “feeds into” decisions not to hold events."
CPAC’s Controversy Cools Fundraisers
Roll Call:
