If you've ever wondered how Gov. Mitt Romney has been able to effectively woo so many conservatives (especially considering his recent conversion to the Pro-Life cause), much of the credit belongs to a devout Roman Catholic named Peter Flaherty. I ran into Peter recently at the Ramesh Ponnuru book signing party. He's a good guy who is highly respected in the conservative community.
Gary Marx, who served in this capacity for the Bush/Cheney '04 campaign, is also lending his advice and counsel to the Romney outreach effort. With highly-respected movement conservative advisors like Flaherty and Marx, it's no wonder the Romney campaign has been able to secure a lot of support from conservatives.
(Granted, Romney is a charismatic candidate who has a lot of talent. But he is also wise to have brought on some conservative sherpas.)
Earlier today, I wrote about how presidential candidates should attend conservative events (such as CPAC). It occurs to me that Flaherty and Marx are probably a major reason Mitt Romney is attending almost every major conservative event.
Update: 2:16 PM: In other news, National Journal's On-Call blog reports:
"Mitt Romney's campaign became the first WH '08 GOP effort to officially start a pro-active recruitment effort today on Facebook.com. The membership drive started over the weekend when Romney online communications director Stephen Smith sent a message to about 40 or 50 activists asking for their help with today's launch."