Mitt Romney and Chris Christie raise $1 Million at Boston Fundraiser for GOP Gubernatorial Candidates

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, embroiled in scandal over a punitive traffic jam, swung into Boston Thursday to raise money for Republican gubernatorial candidates, but stepped into a different type of controversy when organizers had to scramble to change venues. 

The last-minute shift, from a private home in Newton Corner to a Back Bay hotel, came after the event, featuring arguably the nation’s most newsworthy Republican and the party’s most recent presidential nominee, drew unwanted media attention.

Charlie Baker

Christie, who chairs the Republican Governors Association and is still considered a formidable potential 2016 candidate, was in town to raise money for the RGA alongside former Governor Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP presidential nominee, and Charlie Baker, the party’s leading candidate for governor in Massachusetts this year. 

Baker’s campaign worked throughout the afternoon and evening to keep the hastily rescheduled location shift a secret, declining repeated requests for the information about the event, which ultimately raised about $1 million from about 20 people.

Initially, the fundraiser was scheduled for the Newton Corner home of New Balance chairman Jim Davis, a generous political benefactor who donates to both Democrats and Republicans, and who contributed $1 million to a “super PAC” backing Romney in the 2012 election, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. 

The evening was intended to be a staid and intimate affair, in keeping with Davis’s low-key, press-averse nature. After its location became public on Tuesday, unwanted attention, including reporters outside Davis’s house on Thursday, prompted organizers to reconsider. 

On Thursday afternoon, they made the decision to switch the venue to the Lenox Hotel on Boylston Street and Davis decided not to attend, said one person familiar with the decision.

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