Romney raises $2.3 million in Tampa

Mitt Romney raked in $2.3 million during a finance stop in Tampa Wednesday, part of a four-stop fundraising blitz in the Sunshine State this week.

The campaign doesn't disclose fundraising totals, but former Ambassador Mel Sembler, a fundraiser for the Romney campaign, dished about the money haul as he was introducing the candidate at the Avila Golf & Country Club.

Some 200 donors on Wednesday afternoon wrote checks ranging from $2,500 to $50,000. A smaller group of about 50 supporters then attended a private luncheon with Romney at the home of Richard Corbett, who lives in the country club community and is a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation commissioner.

FOX 13's Craig Patrick sat down with Governor Romney, and talked with him about a wide range of topics, drug testing state employees, and why he says Bill Clinton was a better Democrat than President Barack Obama.

"President Clinton most famously said that the era of big government was over. We called President Clinton a new Democrat, because his solution to every problem was not more spending. That's what he spoke of," Romney said.

Romney called President Obama a "throwback" to the pre-Clinto years.

"This president does believe in more and more federal spending, larger and larger programs, Obamacare being perhaps the most egregious example of a massive new spending bill people don't want and can't afford," he said.

We asked Governor Romney about Senator Marco Rubio's idea of allowing some undocumented workers to stay in the U.S. without the full rights of citizenship.

"Senator Rubio's idea with regard to adjusting the Dream Act is worth considering. In its original form, I think the Dream Act was a mistake. But I'm sure there are adjustments and changes that could make it something workable," he said.

. Romney said he would not disagree with Governor Rick Scott's policy of drug testing state employees.

"The states have rights under their constitution to do what they think is best. The governor here is trying an idea, and I'm not going to disagree with Governor Scott. The idea of people being tested is something, which, we'll see what the results are," Romney said.

Governor Romney touted his conservative credentials, explaining what he meant when he said he was a "severely conservative" Republican governor.

"Strictly conservative. I'm a conservative. I balanced the budget as governor. I lowered taxes, drove our schools to be number one in the nation or helped keep them there. And those kind of conservative American principles , I think they're the principals that made America strong in the first place and need to be brought back to government right now. The old liberal policies of the past, even the pre-Clinton policies of bigger and bigger government, larger and larger deficits, we've got to end that," Romney said.