GOP veepstakes: Romney courting Bachmann, Christian conservatives to get his mitts on ticket slot?

As MinMon’s Tom Elko noted here yesterday, Mitt Romney is one of the vice-presidential hopefuls who will sup and swill at the Arizona home of John McCain this weekend. Now the Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder is reporting that Romney also picked this week to roll out his new political action committee, Free and Strong America, with highlighted contributions to seven conservative Republican congressional candidates, including Minnesota’s Michele Bachmann.

Two notable things here: As Ambinder points out, the PAC’s executive director is former campaign aide Peter Flaherty, who was Romney’s liaison to Christian conservatives. And as Ambinder does not point out, most of the beneficiaries of the Romney PAC’s first wave of largesse have strong ties either to conservative evangelical Protestant or conservative Catholic groups. Conservative Christians were an Achilles’ heel of the Mormon Romney’s presidential campaign. He’s aces with the most conservative elements of the Republicans’ corporate constituents; the PAC’s moves and their timing suggest that Romney is trying to build a case he can be a plus — or, at least, not a minus — in courting the Christian right vote.

More: Besides Bachmann, the other recipients of Romney PAC dollars announced this week were Republican congressional candidate Keith Fimian of Virginia, U.S. Rep. Dean F. Andal of California, U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney of Florida, U.S. Rep. Tom Price of Georgia, U.S. Rep. Connie Mack of Florida and U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg of Michigan.

For details, visit Romney’s Free and Strong America PAC.