Mitt Romney/campaign team



The following relates to the campaign team and advisers for Mitt Romney's candidacy for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination.

Team members
In the April 9, 2007, edition of his The Fix Blog, Chris Cillizza wrote in the Washington Post of Romney's "Inner Circle". This is a follow up to Cillizza's December 5, 2006 "Romney Continues D.C. Talent Raid".


 * J. Cofer Black: Senior Adviser for counterterrorism and national security issues. Black, a former counter-terrorism specialist at the CIA, is also a vice president at the private military corporation, Blackwater USA and the chairman of the commercial intelligence corporation Total Intelligence Solutions, LLC.
 * Alex Castellanos
 * Barbara Comstock
 * Eric Fehrnstrom (bio)
 * Peter Flaherty (bio)
 * Carl Forti (former communications director at the National Republican Congressional Committee)
 * Alexander P. Gage (TargetPoint Consulting, Inc./political microtargeting)
 * Kevin Madden ("public face for former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and current Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio)")
 * Beth Myers (bio)
 * Matt Rhoades (bio)
 * Jan van Lohuizen (bio)
 * Mel Sembler Mitt Romney for President 2008 National Finance Co-chairman, Ambassador to Italy under George W. Bush, Republican Jewish Coalition board member
 * Spencer Zwick (bio)

Foreign policy advisers
"Mitt Romney is being advised by Dan Senor, former AIPAC staffer who graduated to the post of official spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad. He is also relying on J. Cofer Black, former chief of the CIA's Counterterrorism Center and now head of Total Intel, a Beltway bandit that provides security services to the government," Philip Giraldi of Antiwar.com wrote in August 2007.

In October 2007, the Washington Post listed the following as Romney's foreign policy advisers.


 * David Aufhauser, "former Treasury Department general counsel and now general counsel of USB investment bank, counter-terrorism policy advisory group"
 * Jorge L. Arrizurieta, "lobbyist and major Republican donor, Latin American policy advisory group"
 * Former Rep. Cass Ballenger (R-N.C.), "onetime chairman of House International Relations Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, Latin American policy advisory group"
 * J. (Joseph) Cofer Black, "former CIA and State Department counterterrorism official and now vice chairman Blackwater USA, senior adviser on counterterrorism and national security"
 * Ted Brennan, "former aide to then-Reps. Cass Ballenger, R-N.C. and Henry Hyde, R-Ill., Latin American policy advisory group"
 * Lt. Gen. John H. ("Soup") Campbell, "former vice director of Pentagon information systems and now a lobbyist for satellite communications, counter-terrorism policy advisory group"
 * Alberto R. Cardenas, "lobbyist and former chairman of the Florida Republican Party, Latin American policy advisory group"
 * Robert Charles, "former assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and law enforcement, Latin American policy advisory group"
 * Samuel Cole, "COO of BlueMountain Capital Management, counter-terrorism policy advisory group"
 * Mark Falcoff, "American Enterprise Institute Latin America scholar emeritus and onetime consultant to President Reagan’s Commission on Central America, Latin American policy advisory group"
 * Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), "ranking Republican on House Intelligence Committee, intelligence adviser"
 * Kent Lucken, "foreign service veteran now an international private banker with Citigroup, counter-terrorism policy advisory group"
 * John McClurg, "formerly of the FBI computer investigations and critical infrastructure threat assessment center and now vice president Honeywell Global Security, counter-terrorism policy advisory group"
 * Larry Mefford, "former FBI agent and counterterrorism official, counter-terrorism policy advisory group"
 * Amb. Tibor Nagy, Jr., "career foreign service officer with ambassadorial tours in Ethiopia and Guinea, counter-terrorism policy advisory group"
 * Amb. Roger Francisco Noriega, "former assistant secretary for Western hemisphere affairs under George W. Bush and now a lobbyist, Latin American policy advisory group"
 * Mitchell B. Reiss, "former state department policy planning director, foreign policy adviser"
 * V. Manuel Rocha, "career foreign service officer and former ambassador to Bolivia, Latin American policy advisory group"
 * Steven Schrage, "former State Department international law specialist, foreign policy and trade director"
 * Dan Senor, "former Iraq Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman and now a lobbyist and Fox News contributor, sometimes foreign policy adviser"
 * Jose Sorzano, "Latin America aide to President Reagan and chairman of corporate consultant Austin Group, Latin American policy advisory group"
 * Larry Storrs, "former Latin America specialist at the Congressional Research Service, Latin American policy advisory group"
 * Caleb ("Cal") Temple, "formerly with the Defense Intelligence Agency and now executive vice president of Total Intelligence Solutions, counter-terrorism policy advisory group"
 * Former Rep. Vin Weber (R-Minn.), "lobbyist and chairman of the National Endowment for Democracy, policy chairman"
 * Ed Worthington, "FBI veteran, counter-terrorism policy advisory group"

External articles

 * Pam Spaulding, "What will Mitt say about Larry Craig?" AMERICAblog, August 27, 2007. Larry Craig (R-Idaho) was co-senate liaison for the Mitt Romney campaign.
 * Foon Rhee, "Senator Craig withdraws from Romney campaign role," Boston Globe, August 27, 2007.
 * "Craig resigns from position on Romney campaign," Think Progress, August 27, 2007.
 * Todd Beeton, "Romney Thinks Twice About Larry Craig's Endorsement," MyDD, August 27, 2007. Includes redacted Craig/Romney video clip.