As Mitt Romney ‘s top fundraisers gather in New York City for a three-day private retreat, the Center for Responsive Politics has been uncovering more information about these bundlers and the interests they represent. Overall, Romney’s campaign has received more than $14.3 million from 63 federally registered lobbyists, according to a report the campaign filed with the Federal Election Commission on Monday. Despite the campaign’s refusal to release the names of its non-lobbyist bundlers, CRP’s analysis of various news reports is beginning to shed some light on these mystery fundraisers — and the finance industry is well-represented.

The Romney Victory Fund’s quarterly lobbyist bundler report shows that a group of 42 lobbyists raised just under $9 million for the Romney campaign and Republican National Committee during the months of July, August, and September. Two of those lobbyists — Bill Graves of the American Trucking Associations and David Beightol of Dutko Worldwide — each raised over a million dollars during that three-month span. They join Dirk Van Dongen of the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors as the only lobbyists to have bundled more than $1 million for the GOP nominee.

New to Romney’s lobbyist bundler fold is Bill Paxon of Akin Gump , who topped the list of fresh fundraisers with a haul of $368,000. Other new faces include John Castellani ($61,000 raised) of PhRMA , the pharmaceutical industry’s trade group; Brian Miller ($36,550 raised) of oil giant BP , and James Hooley ($17,500) of natural gas company Clean Energy Fuels Corp

In addition to the 63 lobbyist bundlers, CRP is also releasing the names of 37 non-lobbyist bundlers who have been confirmed as high-dollar fundraisers in news articles. While the Romney campaign won’t release its full list of bundlers , this initial list offers some insight into the people and industries to whom he may feel especially grateful if elected.

The three most represented industries are: 1. Securities, Commodities and Investment (14 bundlers) 2. Real Estate (7 bundlers) 3. Oil and Gas (4 bundlers) The remaining bundlers come from a smattering of other industries, including pharmaceuticals , manufacturing, and for-profit colleges

CRP’s investigation into the undisclosed Romney bundlers is ongoing, so please check back with our bundlers page for updates to the list.

The Obama campaign voluntarily releases the names of its bundlers on a quarterly basis, maintaining a precedent among major presidential candidates that was originally set by George W. Bush in 2000. An updated list for Obama is expected to be released this Saturday, but you can view his fundraisers through June 2012 here Image: Darlene Jordan, Drew Johnson and Spencer Zwick leave a yacht party for top Romney fundraisers in Tampa, Aug. 2012, by Viveca Novak, OpenSecrets.org



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