While everyone in the GOP is holding their breath for the official announcement of "Mr. Right", former Governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney , is quietly and carefully building a political base in two key early states: Iowa and New Hampshire.

As political reporter Dan Balz writes in today’s Washington Post , Romney spent early and often to get numerous TV ads up and running to introduce himself to the GOP electorate. Romney has also spent a lot of time and money to recruit on-the-ground supporters in Iowa; something Fred Thompson is going to need to do, but will he?

As Balz notes:

In New Hampshire, Romney leads both McCain, who won there in 2000, and Giuliani, who leads virtually all the national polls. In Iowa, his campaign's organizational depth recently drove Giuliani and McCain to drop out of an August GOP presidential straw poll -- seen as a trial run for next year's first-in-the-nation caucuses -- rather than risk a costly and embarrassing defeat at the hands of their lesser-known rival….

But as former senator Fred D. Thompson of Tennessee prepares to announce his candidacy, which will further scramble a fluid GOP race, Romney has turned himself into a significant force no longer discounted by any of his rivals.

Now, it is a race until the end of this week. The second quarter of the year ends and campaigns are going to be announcing how much cash they raised. In the last quarter, McCain’s take was far short of expectations, while Senator Obama astonished veteran observers with his haul; watch for Obama’s cash flow to exceed expectations again as his campaign is being very quiet and careful to say just about nothing in regards to how much they expect to raise this quarter.

Howard Salter