Politico reports on Haley Barbour’s fundraising activity here.

In recent years, it’s become standard practice for presidential hopefuls to establish political committees in states with less restrictive campaign finance rules, allowing them to accept huge checks from deep-pocketed donors and corporations to fund their political travel and staff before they formally declare their candidacies, which brings them under tighter federal restrictions. The strategy was implemented perhaps most adeptly, in the run-up to the 2008 campaign, by former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. He also chaired the RGA while preparing his bid and is again employing elements of the strategy as he eyes a possible 2012 bid.