Mitt Romney privately raised millions ofdollars from New York's elite on Sunday, as Democrats launched coordinatedattacks against the presumptive Republican presidential contender, intensifyingcalls for him to explain his offshore bank accounts and release several yearsof tax returns.
The line of attack, dismissed by the Romney campaign as an "unfoundedcharacter assault," follows new reports that raise questions aboutRomney's personal wealth, which could exceed $250 million. President BarackObama's re-election campaign is expected to push the strategy throughout thecoming week, underscoring their desire to portray Romney as disconnected fromthe middle-class voters he needs to win the presidency.
"He's the first and only candidate for the president of the United Stateswith a Swiss bank account, with tax shelters, with tax avoidance schemes thatinvolve so many foreign countries," Sen. Dick Durbin, an IllinoisDemocrat, said on CBS' "Face the Nation." He was one of severalhigh-profile Democrats who spoke out on the Sunday morning TV news shows.
Romney may have unintentionally helped the Obama campaign.
Republican donors driving Mercedes, Bentleys — and in one case a candy red 2013Ferrari Spider — crowded into a series of closed-door Romney fundraisers in theHamptons, New York's exclusive string of waterfront communities on LongIsland's South Shore. Wall Street bankers and brokerage house chiefs, amongothers, make the area their weekend playground. Romney's Hamptons swing followsa weeklong family vacation at his lakeside vacation home in New Hampshire.
Voters are split on whether they trust Romney or Obama more to run the U.S.economy, but a majority says that Obama better understands their concerns. TheHamptons crowd, however, saw things differently.
"I think he's a plain talking guy," said Peter Cohen, the formerShearson Lehman Brothers chief who now heads his own investment banking firm,as he chewed a cigar in his black Range Rover outside a Romney fundraiserexpected to generate $3 million.
Romney's day concluded at the Southampton estate of billionaire industrialistDavid Koch, where donors were asked to give $50,000 per person or $75,000 percouple. The event attracted protesters like Robert Shainwald, a 65-year-oldretired teacher.
"Romney has no idea what the working person's daily concerns are. Howcould he?" Shainwald said as he waved a sign offering free vegetables toanyone who wasn't a billionaire.
Romney would be among the nation's richest presidents if elected. He made his fortuneat Bain Capital, a Boston-based private equity firm that has become a key pointof contention in his White House bid. He hasn't drawn a regular paycheck inmore than a decade, however, and has instead lived off a series of investments.
But Romney has refused to release more than two years of tax returns that wouldoutline those investments, breaking from a precedent set by his father, formerMichigan Gov. George Romney, who released 12 years of his tax returns when hesought the presidency a generation ago. And an Associated Press report recentlyraised questions about a previously undisclosed Bermuda-based company includedin Romney's portfolio until the day before he became Massachusetts governor in2003.
Obama adviser Robert Gibbs said Romney could easily clear up questions abouthis personal finances if he simply released "a series of years" ofreturns.
"Mitt Romney's father was the pioneer for releasing a series of taxreturns," Gibbs said on CNN's "State of the Union." ''The bestway to figure out if Mitt Romney is complying with American tax law is to havehim release more of his tax returns."
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, considered to be a possible vice presidential pickfor Romney, struggled to defend the offshore financial activity on ABC's"This Week," dismissing the criticism as "a distraction from theObama campaign." And a Romney spokesman suggested the new attack wasinappropriate.
"The Obama campaign's latest unfounded character assault on Mitt Romney isunseemly and disgusting," spokeswoman Andrea Saul said. "Mitt Romneyhad a successful career in the private sector, pays every dime of taxes heowes, has given generously to charitable organizations and served numerouscauses greater than himself."
The new push by Obama and his allies comes two days after the release of alackluster jobs report that said the U.S. unemployment rate was stuck at 8.2percent. Romney has been largely focused on the economy throughout hiscampaign, an issue that voters overwhelmingly report will be on the top oftheir minds come Election Day in November.
But some high-profile Republicans have recently criticized Romney for not beingspecific enough on his economic plans. And some fear that the Republicancampaign is not being aggressive enough in defending his business career andpersonal wealth.
But Romney didn't have to defend his background in the Hamptons.
"This country is about business. Mitt Romney understands business,"said Cohen, the investment banker.
A Republican official said Romney was planning a trip overseas ahead of theRepublican National Convention in August. He is set to visit the Olympics inLondon for the opening ceremonies on July 27 and the beginning of thecompetition. Then he'll head to Israel, where he plans to meet with Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu.