Mitt Romney plans announcement sometime in Spring 2011

Former Massachusetts Governor and sure-to-be 2012 Republican candidate Mitt Romney told a group of his top donors today that he will be eying sometime in the spring to make an announcement regarding his 2012 aspirations. Romney is almost certainly running for President in 2012 and his latest statements basically confirm it.

Story from Politico:

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney is letting donors know it’ll be a while before he looks to 2012 — and that any presidential campaign he builds will have a much smaller staff than in 2008.

“People are exhausted from the 2010 election, and they’re not anxious to begin right away with the next campaign,” Romney told 245 of his top financial supporters on a conference call Thursday, a Romney aide told POLITICO. His team organized the call to connect with top supporters following a busy 2010 season and discuss Romney’s political future.

Romney also told supporters that his organization will be “smaller in scale than our last effort.”

The rationale, as Romney explained it: In 2008, he was a little-known figure who had to spend millions on a large organization if he was to compete against Arizona Sen. John McCain for the Republican nomination. In that cycle, he announced an exploratory committee in January 2007 and officially announced a bid in February.

This time, January and February will come and go without an announcement, he told his supporters — and he can plan a leaner staff because he’s now a leading national Republican figure and needs a team that can hang on through a prolonged primary campaign amid a crowded GOP field.

That sounds like a March time frame to me and it makes sense. The media will be giving most of the 2012 GOP contenders plenty of free press without the scrutiny which comes along with an official announcement. Sounds to me like Romney has a plan on the table and pretty much has a framework team assembled which he’s probably had for months now.