One evening in late September, Romney supporters gathered at the $3m Boca Raton home of Marc Leder

This is an article I found going back to Romney's pre-nomination fund raising days showing his deep connecting with Marc Leder and many other very wealthy supporters:

By William Selway and Martin Z. Braun
February 03, 2012 1:05 PM EST

Private-Equity Rallies Around Mitt Romney’s Dodd-Frank Cure

One evening in late September, Mitt Romney supporters gathered at the $3 million Boca Raton, Florida, home of Marc Leder, the Sun Capital Partners Inc. co- founder behind the takeovers of retailers Friendly Ice Cream Corp., Limited stores and ShopKo Stores Inc.

Waiters served brie-stuffed French toast and short-rib tartlets as guests including Daniel Staton, chairman of social- networking company FriendFinder Networks Inc. (FFN), lingered about the 10,657 square-foot (990 square-meter), six-bedroom waterfront home. Then they gathered inside for a half-hour speech by Romney, whose years of buying and selling companies for Bain Capital LLC left him with a worth of as much as $250 million and a natural rapport with the crowd.

“It’s kind of hard for Romney to come across being a regular Joe,” said Staton. “But put him in a room full of 400 business guys that are all successful, that relate to him, he comes off beautifully.”

Romney raised $57 million last year, more than any of his Republican presidential rivals, and entered the primary season with $20 million to spend. He garnered $24 million alone from October to December, almost twice as much as his chief competitor, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, took in all of last year, according to reports filed with the Federal Election Commission this week. And he has benefited from Wall Street support in that pursuit.

Romney’s benefactors include prominent executives at hedge funds and in private equity, an investing specialty that his candidacy has put under fresh scrutiny because its deals can lead to lost jobs. Romney’s days as chief executive officer at Bain Capital are drawing campaign cash from hedge funds, former colleagues, business contacts and private-equity investors such as Marc Rowan, the billionaire senior managing director of New York-based Apollo Global Management LLC, federal and state campaign records show.

more: http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-03/private-equity-partners-rally-around-romney-as-the-antidote-to-dodd-frank?category=

here is a link to a story on why Romney's connection to Marc Leder matters (beyond the heavy financial connections): http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014237047