Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney will submit the necessary paperwork this week to form a presidential exploratory committee, but not until funeral services for President Gerald Ford have concluded, according to the Boston Globe.

Romney will file by tomorrow with the FEC, an aide said, a registration that allows him to raise and spend money in pursuit of the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, which he has sought - not on the record, of course - since early last year.

Senator John McCain of Arizona, and former New York mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani have already taken the same step.

Romney initially intended to file his paperwork today, the first business day of the new year. But Ford’s death on December 26 resulted in a day of mourning that closed federal offices and the U.S. Postal Service today.

Ford’s death already overshadowed last week’s presidential announcement by former senator John Edwards of North Carolina, who declared he would seek the Democratic nomination.

While the committee filing will technically be labeled “exploratory,” it declares Romney as an official presidential candidate and commist him to the same fund-raising and reporting rules he will have to follow when, as is expected, he makes the transition to a formal presidential campaign committee.

A formal announcement is expected early this year, and Romney is planning a major fund-raising event in Boston this month to propel his candidacy.

Romney, who did not seek a second term, will take the “lone walk” down the 31 steps of the Massachusetts State House, a ceremonial departure reserved for presidents, heads of state, and departing governors.

Not that many residents will necessarily notice he’s gone. Romney couldn’t have spent more time in Iowa last year if he lived there - the Globe reported he was out of Massachusetts for at least 200 days in 2006. His sitting lieutenant governor, Kerry Healey, was drubbed by a relative unknown, Deval Patrick, in November’s election.

Also today, the Massachusetts legislature voted to advance a proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, a critical step toward putting the measure the 2008 ballot.

The Bay State is the nation’s only one in which gays may legally marry. Trying to the Republicans’ conservative base, Romney has pushed hard for this amendment - an effort discredited somewhat by the revelation that he appealed to the gay community as a sympathetic uniter during his run for U.S. Senate in 1994.

Thursday, Patrick will be sworn in, the first black governor in the state’s history and only the second elected in the nation since Reconstruction.