Trump-hosted fundraiser with Ann Romney set to raise $600K
abercrombie fitchAnn Romney is not only raising her profile of late, she is also raising some money -- serious money.The wife of presumptive Republican nominee Mitt Romney turned 63 today, and tonight she is in McLean, Va., outside of Washington, fundraising for her husband's campaign. Tomorrow, she will be in New York City for a birthday luncheon hosted by Donald and Melania Trump, which has netted over $600,000 for the Romney campaign, according to a Trump spokesman.The impending Manhattan event has proved so financially successful, says Trump spokesman Michael Cohen, that the Romney campaign asked Trump to host a similar fundraiser when Romney secures the Republican presidential nomination. According to Cohen, tickets to that event would sell for $50,000 and 50 donors have already expressed interest in attending.Tuesday's event at Trump's primary residence, a triplex on 5th Avenue, was originally only supposed to hold 200 people. But when capacity was filled within 48 hours of invitations going out, the campaign "began to panic," says Cohen. He says they asked to extend the number of people attending, which will now be 400.In order to accommodate the droves, there will be two shifts of attendees - the first batch of 200 spending time with Ann Romney from noon to 1:15 p.m., and the second crowd coming in from 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Buddy Valastro, star of the Bravo show "Cake Boss," custom designed a cake for the party.
abercrombie outletTrump endorsed Romney in Las Vegas on February 2, calling the Romneys "a great couple" during his announcement. At the time, Mitt Romney joked: "There are some things that you just can't imagine in your life; this is one of them." The former governor described himself as "not quite as successful as this guy, but successful nonetheless."Since then, Trump has recorded multiple robo-calls for the campaign in various primary states, leading to a public display of gratitude from Mrs. Romney during victory remarks on Super Tuesday. Speaking before her husband in Boston, she thanked Trump, calling him an "honorary Buckeye...for being on the radio for us all the time in Ohio.""We appreciate everything Mr. Trump has done and will continue to do to help Mitt Romney defeat President Obama and get elected the next president of the United States," says Romney spokesperson Amanda Henneberg.The Romney campaign declined to comment on how much money Trump's fundraiser today or future efforts would bring in.Ann Romney may have thought Hilary Rosen's "hasn't worked a day in her life" jab was an "early birthday present," but for her husband's opponents, Seamus the dog is the gift that keeps on giving.Seamus. Remember him? The Irish setter Mitt Romney crated on the roof of the family station wagon before driving from Boston to Ontario for a family vacation? The dog who, hours into the trip, released a stream of diarrhea that trickled down the windows of the station wagon, forcing Romney to make, reluctantly, an unscheduled pit stop?
abercrombie onlineBoth the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals condemned the act. A blog, DogsAgainstRomney.com, has tens of thousands of followers. Public Policy Polling even found 35 percent of voters said they would be less likely to vote for Romney because of what he did to Seamus. Romney has called Seamus-based attacks some of the most wounding of the campaign.Yet when asked about their dearly departed dog by Diane Sawyer this week, both husband and wife responded with what seems to be characteristic tone-deafness."Would you do it again?" Sawyer asked the couple in an interview this week."Certainly not with the attention it's received," said Mitt "Backbone" Romney, who apparently never met a public opinion he didn't shape-shift to match.His wife took a different tack: Indignant defense."The dog loved it," she told Sawyer, claiming Seamus would leap up into the carrier whenever the family traveled (suggesting, perhaps, that the roof-strapping technique was employed more than once).And the diarrhea, which commentators have attributed to the dog's terror?"He ate the turkey on the counter. I mean, he had the runs," she said, laughing. "He would see that crate, and he would go crazy because he was going with us on vacation."It was, to me, a kinder thing to bring him along than to leave him in the kennel for two weeks."
abercrombie saleYes, bringing the dog on vacation may have been kinder than leaving him in the kennel. But allowing him to ride inside the car would probably have been kinder than sticking him on the roof. And if the whole big Romney family didn't fit in one vehicle, perhaps they could have taken two cars. Surely, they had options.Ann Romney has been called her husband's secret weapon, one with the power to warm her husband's chilly persona and attract female voters who have so far kept their distance. But in recent weeks, her off-the-cuff remarks have given the impression (however fair) that she is out of touch with the challenges of today's working mothers, and that she condones what has been widely described as animal cruelty. Someone, quick: Get Mrs. Romney a day at an animal shelter, and a list of talking pointsBut the court also ruled the state cannot demand that they show proof of U.S. citizenship to register to vote in federal elections, a decision the state's attorney general said he would appeal.That could set the stage for yet another U.S. Supreme Court showdown over a contentious Arizona law touching on citizenship issues. Next week, the high court will hear arguments over the state's effort to crack down on illegal immigration.At issue in Tuesday's ruling was a 2004 Arizona ballot initiative, Proposition 200, that amended state election laws to add the citizenship and identification requirements. The measure - designed to stop illegal immigrants from voting - was challenged in court shortly afterward. While agreeing that Arizona was within its rights to require identification at voting places, the appeals court concluded the national Voting Rights Act superseded the law's requirement that anyone registering to vote in a federal election show "satisfactory evidence" of U.S. citizenship.
cheap abercrombie clothesA growing number of states have enacted voter ID laws, prompting a divisive debate over whether proponents are seeking to limit access to the polls in a presidential election year.Thirty states have laws requiring that voters show at least some type of identification to vote in November, according to the National Council of State Legislatures.Several states have enacted voter photo ID laws since the start of 2011, including Texas, Wisconsin, Kansas and Pennsylvania, though the U.S. Justice Department has blocked the Texas law and a state judge has blocked the Wisconsin law.The Arizona law's "photo identification requirement is not an invidious restriction" and does not violate the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause, the court's majority concluded in an opinion by Judge Sandra Ikuta.But the court was not convinced by Arizona's arguments in favor of Proposition 200's proof of citizenship requirement."In sum, the NVRA and Proposition 200's registration provision ... do not operate harmoniously as a single procedural scheme for the registration of voters for federal elections," Ikuta wrote."Therefore, under Congress's expansive Elections Clause power, we must hold that the registration provision ... is pre-empted by the NVRA" when a when a voter seeks to register for a federal election.
abercrombie ukThe U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments on another controversial Arizona law touching on citizenship issues - the state's first-in-the-nation effort to crack down on illegal immigration inside its own borders.Arizona Attorney General Tom Horne, a Republican, said on Tuesday that he would appeal the registration part of the split ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court."The court upheld the requirement that persons wishing to vote must show identification at the polling place. The part we will have to appeal deals with registration. We always expected the U.S. Supreme Court to have to decide this one," Horne said in a statement."The people of Arizona have a right to request that people registering to vote show some evidence they are citizens and we fully expect the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold that," he added.Arizona's Republican governor, Jan Brewer, welcomed the part of the ruling about the ID requirement, her spokesman said."Unfortunately the court didn't take the further step of upholding our proof of citizenship requirement for individuals registering to vote," spokesman Matthew Benson told Reuters."This decision prevents Arizona from evenly applying its proof of citizenship requirement for all individuals registering to vote."Plaintiffs in the suit, who argued that the law led to legal residents being unable to register to vote, hailed the ruling to strike down the proof of citizenship requirement as a victory."Today's ruling vindicates all the U.S. citizens who were improperly rejected for voter registration in Arizona," said Nina Perales, vice president of litigation for the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.Arizona may no longer defy federal law in voter registration "particularly in a manner that discriminates against newly naturalized citizens," Perales said in a statement.The group said the lead plaintiff in the case, Jesus Gonzalez, was a newly naturalized U.S. citizen who was twice rejected when he attempted to register to vote because state officials said the could not confirm his citizenship.
