Mitt Romney raised $10.25 million in a one-day fundraiser in Las Vegas Monday, demonstrating his campaign's huge fundraising capacity, unrivaled by the rest of the Republican 2012 field. The former Massachusetts governor aims to raise $40 million this quarter, "a sum that could give him a financial advantage so strong that it partly compensates for his considerable weaknesses," Politico's Jonathan Martin reports. And if that's not enough cash, Romney told reporters that he's open to pouring his own wealth into his campaign, as he did in 2008, when he personally spent $42 million.

In the massive Las Vegas Convention Center, 720 campaign workers began dialing donors at 5:30 a.m., asking for the maximum contribution. Martin writes that fellow candidate Tim Pawlenty might not be able to match Romney's one-day haul the entire quarter. If he runs, Jon Huntsman won't spend his own considerable wealth, and though Michele Bachmann and Sarah Palin can raise a lot of cash online, they'll have trouble attracting bundlers that could help them reach Romney's war chest. The guy with the best chance of rivaling Romney's fundraising is Mitch Daniels, thanks to his support from some close to the Bush family. But Daniels still hasn't decided if he's going to run.

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Elspeth Reeve