Romney bags more Wall Street support

Four JPMorgan Chase executives will host a fundraiser for GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney next month, according to a Bloomberg report.

It’s another sign that some of Wall Street’s wealthiest donors are beginning to view the former Massachusetts governor as the eventual Republican presidential nominee.

On Monday, Bloomberg reported that Romney landed the endorsement and fundraising support of Steven Schwarzman, the chairman of the world’s largest private equity firm, the Blackstone Group, and a top Republican donor.

The JPMorgan fundraiser will take place at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City, which is owned by the Blackstone Group.

The Bloomberg report also noted that one of the JPMorgan executives hosting the event is James B. Lee Jr., who represented Chrysler’s lenders in opposing President Obama’s restructuring of the company.

Romney has slammed the auto bailouts while on the campaign trail, and in 2008 wrote a New York Times editorial called “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.”

Obama took in a significant haul from Wall Street and the financial industry in 2008, but has struggled to repeat that success in the latest cycle. 
According to Bloomberg, about 100 former donors to Obama, primarily from Wall Street, have given to the Romney 2012 campaign, and one of the president’s biggest 2008 supporters, David Heller of Goldman Sachs, will not be fundraising for Obama in 2012.

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