The price tag for entry to Romney's exclusive donor-retreat was $50,000. Romney rewards donors

PARK CITY, Utah — Mitt Romney’s campaign held its daily strategy session Saturday 2,076 miles from its Boston headquarters. And this time, it had some very special guests.

Eight hundred top donors gathered in the ballroom of a resort here to watch the presentation: The Romney campaign for president is organized, efficient and run like a business. In other words, their money is being wisely invested.


The price tag for entry to the exclusive donor retreat was $50,000 and included access to some of the GOP’s biggest names — Jeb Bush, Karl Rove and Condoleezza Rice, as well as a briefing from top Romney officials on how they plan to beat President Barack Obama in November.

It was a way of saying thank you to the hundreds of bundlers — fundraisers who tap their network of friends, family and associates to raise far more than the $2,500 they are allowed to contribute individually to a campaign. While Obama discloses his bundler list, Romney shrouds his in secrecy, and the goings-on this weekend were held strictly behind closed doors.

The political presentation included deputy campaign manager Katie Packer Gage; senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom; Beth Myers, who is heading up the campaign’s vice presidential search; and adviser Ron Kaufman. Also present were political director Rich Beeson, press secretary Andrea Saul and pollster Neil Newhouse.

“It kind of exemplified how the operation works, and it was a very successful presentation,” one attendee said afterward. “If there was any question as to whether this was a professional team, I think those questions were totally dispelled by the presentation.”

The political briefing was only one part of a three-day retreat the Romney campaign hosted at a mountaintop ski resort. More than twice as many people as initially expected forked over the money to attend or had already bundled enough to be invited.

The highlight of the confab was a Friday night address by Romney to donors at Utah Olympic Park. Romney mentioned Obama only once, calling him a good father and family man. But attendees described an electric charge in the room, an excitement that was renewed among supporters after hearing their nominee for president speak.

“You get 800 people excited,” said attendee Allen Weh, former New Mexico GOP chairman and gubernatorial candidate. “They’re going to go out and get more.”

Former Ambassador to Slovakia Ron Weiser, the finance chairman of the Republican National Committee, described the mood as exciting and said turnout was higher than anticipated.

“A lot of people, when they heard about it, they came at the last minute,” Weiser said.

The exclusive donor retreat is only one way Romney is honing his fundraising apparatus to compete with Obama. For the first time in May, Romney and the Republican National Committee outraised Obama and the Democratic Party.

Attendees began to flow into The Chateaux at Silver Lake on Friday afternoon. Many arrived in vans and black cars that shuttled them from nearby private airport terminals and the main airport, which is 30 minutes away in Salt Lake City.

A plane registered to Bain Capital, the private equity firm Romney founded that has been the subject of a barrage of attacks during the primary and general election, landed nearby, but it wasn’t clear who was on board.

In the lobby of the Chateaux, a team of young staffers processed check-ins, handing every attendee a beige Vineyard Vines duffle bag with Believe in America embroidered on one side and a circular flag-style emblem with the name Romney on the reverse. Each bag contained a white binder with Romney Leadership Team printed on the cover and a blue baseball cap with the same circular logo as the bag.

The entire weekend was off-limits to the news media, and the campaign declined to release the names of the bundlers in attendance. Most attendees who talked to reporters outside the meeting asked not to be named.

Reporters, unable to hear any of the speeches and who were asked to remain off the hotel property, wore a path on the sidewalk outside, notepads and cameras in hand. They hoped to catch an attendee who would share a morsel of information and staked out the parking lot to watch the black SUVs entering the hotel garage.

The guest list was pieced together by peering through the windows of arriving cars and searching flight records at nearby airports.

In attendance were Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal; Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell; Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan; Arizona Sen. John McCain; former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush; former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff; and former Massachusetts Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, who served under Romney. Rove and political consultant Mary Matalin spoke at a panel on the media. Former Secretary of State Rice gave a lunch address Saturday.

The events kicked off with a state director meeting that Romney dropped in on to make brief remarks.

Described as a more substantive retreat by those who had attended similar events in the past for other GOP presidential candidates, the event included a series of speeches.

On Saturday morning at the Chateaux, about two dozen attendees — including several who are considered possible vice presidential nominees, like Jindal and McDonnell — spoke.

That afternoon, Romney and McCain held a joint session. Romney introduced the Arizona senator, and then the pair took questions — mostly focused on foreign policy.

Rice delivered her Saturday lunch speech later, which was praised by several attendees. It, too, focused on foreign policy, and she chastised the president — sometimes by name — for failing to lead on the global stage.

Former Secretary of State James Baker spoke on Friday night, also taking a hard stance against Obama on national security.

Baker told reporters that the retreat reminded him of a Colorado gathering in 1976 shortly after the GOP convention that year in which President Gerald Ford asked him to manage his election campaign.

“That’s what I see going on here,” Baker said. “We’re going to have a different result this year. We’re going to win.”

The campaign also held a series of panels. The Friday afternoon seminar featured an energy discussion that included Romney policy consultant Oren Cass and husband and wife duo Reps. Connie Mack of Florida and Mary Bono Mack of California, who told about 200 people in a smaller ballroom about the logjam in Washington over energy legislation.

Another panel on education was hosted at the same time, a standing-room only event with about 100 attendees that featured former Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt, who is heading Romney’s transition planning, and campaign policy director Lanhee Chen.

On Saturday morning, there was a panel on health care that also included Leavitt, but attendees said there was very little talk of the impending Supreme Court decision on the health care law. During the same time slot, Rove and Matalin participated in a panel on the media. Rove, who told reporters the panel was “damn good” but declined to elaborate, was described by attendees as the funniest speaker of the weekend.

While poking fun at Democrats, Rove began to mimic the Cajun accent of Democrat strategist James Carville, whose wife, Matalin, was sitting on stage.

“I don’t listen to him, and if I did, I couldn’t understand him,” Matalin joked with Rove, drawing laughter from the audience, according to two people at the panel discussion.

The event included social events, as well. On Saturday afternoon, Ann Romney hosted a tea at a nearby hotel for female attendees. And on Sunday, the campaign offered a golf outing, although Romney didn’t participate.

The highlight of the retreat was Friday night at the Utah Olympic Park, where, at the base of a training mountain surrounded by ski jumps, the former head of the Salt Lake City Olympics Committee spoke under a large white tent.

Romney delivered a speech nearly identical to his regular stump and fundraising addresses, though attendees who have heard those remarks described him as more confident, comfortable and enthusiastic than usual.

Ann Romney brought a lighter side to the evening.

Most of the joking was aimed at her sons, four of five of whom were present. Romney went down the line and told stories about each of her sons, teasing them while also explaining the individual role each plays in the campaign.

When the speeches were wrapped up, the Romneys worked the crowd, stopping to shake hands and exchange pleasantries. Then, the crowd watched a ski jump exhibition featuring former and potential Olympians, who performed tricks on the mountain and landed in a large swimming pool.