Today’s article in the Boston Globe about our fair haired presidential candidate.
Former Massachusetts governor Paul Cellucci told the Globe yesterday that he is supporting former New York City mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani for president over Mitt Romney — even though Romney called Cellucci and asked for his endorsement in a meeting two weeks ago.
Ouch.
Let’s just say it hasn’t been a good week for Mitt Romney. While Republicans are still reeling from his dramatic change in positions, more news filtered in this week from TPM Cafe about his contributions to Democrats in ’92:
Richard Swett (D-NH) $250
John LaFalce (D-NY) $250
Doug Anderson (D-UT) $1000 – the max amount
TPM reported an interesting additional tidbit.
In addition to his giving to the Dems, his donations to Republicans had all but ceased. Romney had routinely made donations of $1,000 or more to the Massachusetts Republican State Committee throughout the 1980’s, but did not make any donations to them in 1990, 1991 or 1992.
…he sent a personal, not campaign, check to all 131 GOP legislative candidates, even those in opposed primaries.
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He missed 3 years, out of THOUSANDS of donations, and THAT makes him a bad GOP? I would challange ANY other candidate to match his record of personal – not war chest – generosity.
You know the storyline the McCainiacs and Brownbackers are trying to build: “Romney is a liberal faking it as a conservative.” The beauty of that story is that anything Romney has done since he became governor is fake, and the true liberal Romney was the one from the early nineties, before he got Potomac Fever.
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And, I wouldn’t bring up 2004 very much. Not only did all those candidates lose, but I’m sure that you could find, if you were looking, a bunch of them that espoused views on choice, gay marriage, etc etc that the South Carolina GOP might find troublesome.
And regarding the generous 2004 donations, when you give a candidate money, you never know about their success. Except, of course, when you’re giving to an uncontested Mass. Dem. as an access fee rather than a political donation.
I know a Republican primary is a rare beast in Massachusetts, but you’re going to have to get used to the fact that the Democrats are not the ones pushing this. Hell, Romney’s worst enemy these days is the nutjob from Article 8, not any Democrat.
Romney came in and carpetbagged us when Jane Swift was taking the political fall out to balance the budget. Now Romney takes credit for Swift’s work without ever mentioning her by name.
When trying to determine the reason for campiagn contributions it’s pretty important not to simply look at the party of the candidate. Here’s a few reasons why Romney might have given (one time, 15 years ago) three small contributions to Democrats:
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1) Swett – A morman, running for re-election just two years before Romney intended to run against Kennedy in the neighboring New England state.
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2) LaFalce – Elected in 1974, LaFalce had had already established himself as a nearly-permanent member and a relatively moderate (pro-life) Democrat. He also focused his work on banking and business issues, pretty important matters to Romney’s Bain Capital. He served as Chairman of the House Small Business Committee from 1987-1994, and as Ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee from 1998-2002. Who was LaFalce’s opponent in 1992? William E. Miller Jr., the son of William E. Miller who was the 1964 Glodwater choice for V.P. (a post Mitt’s dad wanted) and chair of the Republican Party in 1968 when George Romney was forced to drop out of the Presidential race. Pay back?
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3) Anderson – A morman, from Utah. Went to Harvard business school in in mid-1970s, overlapping with Romney’s years there. Sereved on Harvard faculty (in Boston) and as chairman of Michigan-baed Bednix company with close ties to Mitt’s dad’s work. These two are closely connected (both also went to Stanford undergrad) and I suspect that the connections run deep.
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And this is all quick Google stuff. If paid, I’m sure these ties could be flushed out and explained.
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Suggesting that Romney’s “secret Democrat-ness” is the real reason (rather than his many connections to these particuar Democrats) for his contributions seems silly.
The problem for Mitt is that it’s “truthy”.
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It fits the narrative that his opposition is trying to write for him. Very few people are actually going to think deeply about Mitt’s donations, in their minds it will just add to the evidence that he may not be what he says he is.
Seriously.
Romney has been selling himself and an ultra conservative, while we all know that he took on this persona a few years ago when he decided to run for president. We saw this first hand while running for governor and when he ran against Kennedy in ’94. Now just before his Senate run we see that he backed Tsongas. Mitt had actually stopped sending is annual contributions to the state GOP for 4 years, while at the same time supporting ONLY democratic candidates. This is not to say that he is a secret Democrat. The point is that he’s just an empty suit who will say anything to get elected. It’s true for Senate, Governor and President. It’s been the only thing that is consistent about Romney.
Maybe Mitt can just say that he is proud to have outlasted John Kerry in the 2008 Presidential race an call it a campaign.