Gov. Romney ready to file for 2008 bid

BOSTON – Gov. Mitt Romney this week will submit the necessary paperwork to form a presidential exploratory committee, but not until funeral services for former President Gerald R. Ford have concluded, according to a top aide familiar with his plans.

Romney will file by Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission, the aide said, a registration that will allow the Massachusetts governor to raise and spend money in pursuit of the 2008 GOP nomination.

Romney, like Ford, is from Michigan. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani have already taken the same step.

Romney ended a 10-day vacation at his home in Utah on Monday, and he had intended to file his paperwork today, the first business day of the new year. But Ford’s death on Dec. 26 triggered a mourning period that will close federal offices and the U.S. Postal Service today, and the former president will be buried Wednesday in Grand Rapids, Mich.

“We want to be very, very respectful of that,” said the Romney aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity pending the creation of the presidential committee.

Ford’s death overshadowed last week’s presidential announcement by former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, who declared he would seek the Democratic nomination.

While the committee filing will be labeled “exploratory,” it will declare Romney as an official presidential candidate and commit him to the same fundraising and reporting rules he will have to follow when, as is expected, he transitions to a formal presidential campaign committee.

A formal announcement is expected sometime later this year, although Romney is planning a major fundraising event in Boston on Monday to propel his candidacy.

Romney aides believe the governor, the son of George Romney, a 1968 presidential candidate and the former governor of Michigan, can find a following as a youthful alternative to McCain and a more conservative candidate than Giuliani.

If successful, Romney would become the first Mormon elected president.

The 59-year-old is a former venture capitalist who made hundreds of millions of dollars at Bain Capital helping start such companies as Staples, the office-supply giant. He took over the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City following a bid-rigging scandal that was an embarrassment to Utah, the United States and the International Olympic Committee.

In 2002, he returned to Massachusetts and won a four-year term as governor, his first and only stint in elective office.