Report says Romney set to receive Secret Service protection

Mitt Romney is set to receive Secret Service protection Thursday.

The former Massachusetts governor is receiving the protection because of the increasing size of his campaign events, according to campaign sources who spoke with ABC News. 

He will be the second GOP candidate to receive a security detail after Herman Cain requested and was granted protection in November. 

The decision to authorize Secret Service protection is made by a congressional advisory committee and Homeland Security Sec. Janet Napolitano. They are tasked with identifying "major" candidates in need of protection.

The committee does not usually assign protection until four months before the general election, but the move is not unprecedented. President Obama received protection in May 2007, 18 months before the general election. Hillary Clinton, Obama's leading primary opponent, was already under protection as a former first lady.

Romney's win in the Florida primary, which elevated him to the prohibitive favorite in the GOP presidential race, may also have factored in the decision to extend protective services.

Some campaigns have been eager to be assigned the protection in the past, figuring that the presence of the Secret Service gave their campaigns a sense of legitimacy - and shifted the cost of security from the campaign to the federal government. But the last GOP nominee - Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) - refused protection early in the 2008 contest, saying that the Secret Service detail was intrusive and a waste of taxpayer dollars.

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