"Mitt Romney counts on home-court advantage; Leaning hard on Michigan ties, and his father’s legacy" by Michael Kranish and Matt Viser | Globe Staff, February 19, 2012
FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. - The earnestness of the moment was undeniable. But it also underscored the surprising and potentially dire circumstance Mitt Romney faces. In this state where the family name has long been considered golden, and where Romney was raised as the son of a popular governor, some polls show him trailing former senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania in the Feb. 28 GOP primary.
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Related: Romney Campaign Going to the Dogs
But as much as Romney declares his love for Michigan, the real question is whether Republican voters here will love him back - or rebuff him as sharply as voters in Minnesota, Missouri, and Colorado did earlier this month. Indeed, by invoking the father-son comparison, Romney has launched an uncommonly personal campaign subplot: the Michigan primary is not just a race between Romney and his Republican opponents, but also between Romney and the long shadow still cast here by his father. Even Romney has said that he could never come close to matching the accomplishments of the man he idolized....
George Romney’s legacy here remains very real, even if memories of it are fading. He turned around American Motors Corp., and served three two-year terms as governor. But he did so as a relatively liberal Republican, blunt and outspoken, even walking out on the party’s national convention in 1964 when it nominated Barry Goldwater. Whatever one thought of George Romney’s political views, there was little doubt where he stood - toward the left end of the Republican Party spectrum - and that he detested efforts to label politicians. Writing to Goldwater, the elder Romney criticized “dogmatic ideological parties.’’
Mitt Romney, who was born in Detroit and raised in the wealthy suburb of Bloomfield Hills, initially followed his father’s path, proclaiming he was an independent-minded moderate when he ran for political office in Massachusetts. But he is campaigning as a different kind of Romney as he tries to win votes from a Republican Party that is much more conservative than in his father’s day....
Like many older Michigan residents, L. Brooks Patterson remembers the day in 1967 when George Romney undermined his presidential campaign by telling an interviewer he had been “brainwashed’’ by US generals in Vietnam whose overly rosy briefings had persuaded that the war was necessary and winnable....
If only MITT COULD BE LIKE HIS DAD!!!
George Romney, who campaigned by his son’s side during Mitt’s unsuccessful bid in Massachusetts for the US Senate in 1994, died in 1995, before his son was elected in 2002 as governor of Massachusetts and twice sought the presidency.
For many Michiganders who do remember George Romney, the contrast between the father and son is striking. Bill Ballenger, a former GOP state representative who runs the influential newsletter, Inside Michigan Politics, knew the elder Romney and recalls meeting an 18-year-old Mitt and his father in 1965 at the governor’s residence. Having known both men during their careers, he is a student of their differences.
George Romney, Ballenger said, “was a force of nature. He was a very extroverted, straightforward, candid, energetic, and seemingly ingenuous person that Mitt has had problems emulating. Mitt has got this plasticity about him that it has been hard for him to overcome. There is something artificial about him compared to his father, and I think Mitt’s reputation for being a flip-flopper on issues feeds into that.’’
Some recent Michigan polls have not only shown Romney trailing Santorum, but have also raised questions about how effective Romney’s effort to play up his roots has been. A poll released last week by the Detroit News showed that while about 68 percent of Michigan voters view both candidates favorably, Santorum leads 39.2 percent to 21.4 percent in the “very favorable’’ category.
The Romney name carries weight mainly among older voters, said Corwin Smidt, a political science professor at Calvin College in Grand Rapids.
“My wife was a resident of the state and she remembers Romney very positively,’’ he said. “But my wife is 65. It’s an older generation that would be more impressed, if at all, with that. . . . It’s a limited factor, to what extent it is a factor. It would be among a relatively small segment of the population and even among that population it may not come into play.’’
Mitt is desperate!
Indeed, the lure of the Romney brand may have been overstated. While Romney’s father was a popular figure, it is less-remembered that Mitt’s mother, Lenore, ran unsuccessfully for the US Senate in 1970; that Mitt’s brother, Scott, lost his bid to be the Republican nominee for state’s attorney general in 1998; and that Scott’s former wife, Ronna Romney, failed twice in her effort to be the Republican nominee for a US Senate seat.
Romney himself did win the 2008 Republican primary here, in part by vowing to stop job losses. When Senator John McCain told voters during that campaign that some of the state’s auto jobs “are not coming back,’’ Romney said he was “not willing to accept defeat like that.’’ Unlike his father, Romney never ran one of Michigan’s great auto companies, but the legacy resonated four years ago and may have helped seal his primary victory.
Months after the campaign, Romney wrote an op-ed for the New York Times that was headlined, “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt,’’ in which he opposed a federal bailout for the auto industry and argued instead for a “managed bankruptcy.’’ He predicted that “you can kiss the automotive industry goodbye’’ if there was a bailout.
While all of the 2012 Republican candidates have said they opposed the auto bailout, Romney has been blasted by Democrats who said his plan would not have worked. Romney last week doubled down on the issue, writing an op-ed for the Detroit News in which he stood by his proposal for managed bankruptcy and said the bailout was “crony capitalism.’’ Santorum, meanwhile, is trying to use the issue against Romney, saying the former Massachusetts governor is inconsistent because he supported the bailout for Wall Street firms....
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Mitt still worth a lot, though:
"For Mitt Romney, charity centers on Mormon Church; More than 80% of giving directed to his religion" by Beth Healy | Globe Staff, February 19, 2012
A review of Mitt Romney’s charitable giving shows that while he has directed the vast majority of his money to the Mormon Church and its affiliate Brigham Young University, his giving to other causes is modest in comparison and ebbs and flows with his political ambitions, according to a Globe inspection of his tax filings.
The Republican presidential candidate has donated $9.4 million, or more than 80 percent of his charitable giving, to the church over the past dozen years, a figure far higher than previously known. Other causes have received $1.8 million from Romney during that period, according to tax filings of his foundation and two personal tax returns that have been made public.
His nonchurch gifts have focused on youth development and health, including City Year of Boston and groups tackling multiple sclerosis, a disease his wife has battled. But for the preponderance of his charitable giving, Romney relies on the priorities of his church.
Romney made his fortune as founder of the Boston private equity firm Bain Capital and is worth as much as $250 million. Like many Americans, he gives most generously to his church. And as a Mormon, he tithes, donating 10 percent of his income to the church, as all members are encouraged to do.
Romney has given to groups in Boston over the years, including $70,000 to Harvard Business School, where he studied, and $82,500 to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. His largest gifts after the church have gone to the United Way, the international youth aid group Right to Play, and the George W. Bush Library.
But unlike many people of his wealth and stature in the business world, Romney has contributed relatively modestly to Boston’s major civic and human services institutions, such as museums or food banks, even those on whose boards his former partners at Bain Capital serve. He has given virtually no money to the arts, according to his tax returns.
Romney declined to be interviewed for this story. His spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom, said, “The Romneys support the charitable mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The church has a long tradition of charitable works, such as working with the Red Cross on disaster relief and helping the poor and less fortunate around the world through humanitarian aid, clean water, food production, and medical care.’’
According to his foundation’s tax filings, Romney seemed to place more attention on civic giving in years when he was most in the public eye....
Romney has at times used his foundation to support groups with political agendas. He has given $35,000 each to the Federalist Foundation and the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, and $15,000 to a hunters’ rights group. In 2006, while governor of Massachusetts, he supported an antiabortion group and an anti-gay-marriage group.
In addition to the $9 million in church donations disclosed in Romney’s tax filings, he probably gave twice that amount - an estimated $9 million more - to fulfill his tithing obligation. That money would have come directly from his income and would be reflected in tax returns that he has not made public. The campaign would not confirm Romney’s total giving to the church over the 12 years.
The Globe’s analysis is based on actual donations made to nonprofits by Romney’s foundation. It does not include his gifts to the foundation, which the campaign has cited. That money often stays in the foundation for many years and sometimes is paid out to the church....
The central church devotes most of its money to building and upkeep of its places of worship, to foreign missions to convert people to Mormonism, and to disaster relief efforts after tsunamis and earthquakes. It also promotes self-reliance, distributing wheelchairs so people can go to work and to school. The church said it provided $1.3 billion in humanitarian assistance globally from 1985 to 2010.
To help the poor in their local communities, Mormons set aside money by fasting monthly or weekly. The money they save on meals is pooled for fellow members in need.
“Because we are committed to the idea of being our brother’s keeper, we really are more committed to other members of our congregation than may be typical,’’ said Grant Bennett, a spokesman and former bishop of the Belmont temple where the Romneys have belonged for years.
Romney is known for his generosity to those in his inner circle, including helping a Mormon family whose children had become paralyzed and shutting down Bain Capital to find a partner’s lost daughter in New York City. But he has been criticized on the campaign trail for being remote from ordinary Americans....
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