the GOP's effort to retain the House.

"It's going to be a herculean effort on fundraising for the House," said one Republican involved, predicting a massive focus on outside money routed through groups like the Congressional Leadership Fund, whose president roamed the Stein Eriksen Lodge this weekend.

CLF, the main super PAC affiliated with Paul Ryan, is expected to consume much of the fundraising oxygen this cycle, no longer forced to compete with presidential super PACs in a midterm and with Republican donors seeing House races as higher fundraising priorities than Senate ones in 2018.

Ryan himself acknowledged the task before them, reminding some of the GOP's most loyal supporters in a private session here about the statistical history of midterm losses for the party in power, according to two peoplelike him in the 2018 campaign is one of the bigger questions hovering over their relationship.

Despite his fervent, personal criticism of Trump, Romney allies feel they have avoided any blackballing -- successfully using chief of staff Reince Priebus and Ryan to get names in front of the president for administration posts, such as Andy Puzder for Labor Secretary and Jim Donovan for Deputy Secretary of the Treasury, Both of those Romney friends later withdrew from their confirmation processes.

But alas, Trump's footprint at Romney's star event remained meager.

Ronna Romney McDaniel, the new chair of the Republican National Committee and Mitt Romney's niece, has earned early plaudits from GOP givers. But she was a late scratch here at her uncle's retreat -- she went to Georgia to campaign in that