JACKSON - Republican Mitt Romney became the second White House hopeful to visit Wyoming and attend fundraisers in as many days, arriving here Wednesday afternoon for a standing-room-only gathering in a humid motel conference room.

Late the night before, Democratic presidential candidate and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson attended a Jackson fundraiser before jetting off to Nevada the same evening.

On Wednesday, some 50 to 75 people sat or stood inside and outside the 49'er motel conference room as Romney, immaculately groomed in a pinstriped dress shirt with French cuffs and links, took the small, makeshift stage aside flags of the United States and Wyoming. The event was open to supporters, detractors and the media.

"The civilized world and America is in a perilous situation and is under attack" by "radical jihadists" who want to drag it "back to the 8th and 7th centuries," Romney said.

He is coming off a win in Iowa's straw poll in a narrow field absent two of his GOP presidential rivals, Rudy Giuliani and Arizona Sen. John McCain.

During his speech, Romney took swipes at leading Democratic presidential contenders, Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, while stressing the importance of strong family values, including marriage before children, energy independence, increasing the military by 100,000 troops, and support for President Bush's surge policy in Iraq.

Romney said that if either were elected president, Obama and Clinton would take America "on a leftward turn" at a dangerous time in world history.

A man in the audience grilled Romney about his record as governor of Massachusetts, alleging he left the state with $50 billion in under-funded liability and deferred maintenance for such public works as state parks and the Boston-to-Cambridge train line.

"You're informed, but misinformed," Romney said while defending his gubernatorial record and polishing his conservative fiscal philosophy. "We had a $3 billion budget gap when I came in. While I was governor, every year we created a surplus. We had more requests (for spending) every year than money spent."

Before taking questions from the press on Wyoming's gangbuster pace of energy development, foreign policy views and immigration, Romney praised the mother of a Marine, on his third tour of duty in Iraq, while asking questions of the Marine's mother with the probing nature of a mind reader.

"It'd be nice if there was a surge of support for (the) troops," Romney told the mother, drawing loud applause from the crowd, before adding that he did not support a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq, believing it could ignite regional chaos and civil war.

Asked whether as president he would change the current pace of energy extraction on Wyoming's federal lands, including banning development on the Wyoming Range, Romney said he was "not sufficiently informed" on the plight of wildlife there. But, he added, his plan to get America "energy independent, by increasing oil, gas, nuclear, and liquid coal development," calls for it to be done in an environmentally sound manner.

Earlier Wednesday, in an Associated Press interview in Reno, Nev., Romney took a strong states' rights stance on Western issues of water, mining and public lands, saying he's against "heavy-handed" intrusion by the federal government.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., recently promised to fight construction of any coal-fired power plants in Nevada, but Romney said: "That doesn't make a lot of sense to me."

"We need to become an energy-independent nation. Coal is a major source of energy for this nation," Romney said, adding that a better course would be to "insist on clean-burning technologies."

Romney has ranked coal alongside ethanol, biofuels and nuclear energy as alternatives to foreign oil.

On immigration, the top-tier Republican candidate disagreed with Bush's philosophy that illegal immigrants were here doing jobs "Americans didn't want to do." He also said he opposed amnesty or pathways to citizenship for illegal immigrant that excluded "getting in the back of the line" to obtain lawful visas or citizenship.

According to the latest Zogby poll, Iowa GOP voters favor Romney by 33 percent, opening his lead over his closest rival, Rudy Giuliani, by 19 points.

Former Republican state legislator Clarene Law, whom Romney called "Charlene" when he thanked her for hosting Wednesday's press conference at one of her motels, said she supported Romney's proven leadership during the Olympics in Salt Lake City and cherished his family values and successes in academia, business and as a former governor.

Romney, who at roughly $72,000 raised to date leads all presidential takers inside Teton County, was scheduled to attend a $1,000- to $2,300-a-head fundraiser Wednesday evening at the Lazy Moose Ranch in Wilson. Organizers said they expected at least 100 to 140 people to attend the event, which could put Romney over the $200,000 mark in money raised in Teton County alone.

On Tuesday night, Richardson, one of eight Democrats vying for that party's nomination for president, entered the Cowboy State by chartered jet.

Before jumping into a black SUV that whisked him off to a fundraiser of about 35 guests at the Jackson home of art dealer Gerald Peters, Richardson fielded a question about why locals should consider him and his alternative energy proposals.

"I believe Wyoming has enormous potential to get (most) of its power from wind," Richardson said standing on the tarmac. "It's got the resources. Its budget, like New Mexico's, is in good shape."

The candidate added he believed greenhouse gas emissions were "threatening Yellowstone's ecosystem," and he advocated policies to convert coal production to cleaner methods. He also said the United States and Wyoming had to strike a balance between fossil fuels and clean energy.

Richardson has told national audiences that he supports a balance between traditional and new energy forms, telling NBC newsman Tim Russert in a recent broadcast of "Meet the Press" that "I'm not against oil production. I strongly favor renewable energy, and I believe the oil companies, you know, should not get the tax breaks they're getting."