Romney’s self-proclaimed “golden” status in the Wolverine state is not exactly playing to his favor quite as he may have planned. In a statewide poll released last week by Lansing-based EPIC-MRA, Romney ranked last among GOP candidates in the eyes of Michigan voters. Only 38 percent of surveyed voters had a favorable opinion of the golden boy, with Sen. John McCain getting 59 percent, and Rudy Giuliani with 55 percent. A full 19 percent did not know who the “Golden Governor” was.
So how did the Bay state get stuck with Mitt instead of Lansing? In a word, ambition. In fact, Gov. John Engler publicly offered him a shot at a Senate seat in 2002:
“I have to object, though, to Mitt Romney going back to Massachusetts. He was born in Michigan. He needs to come back to Michigan. We would like to have him in our state. We have got two United States Senate seats waiting for him.”
Kidding or not, Gov. Engler had already hand-picked his favorite to succeed him in 2002 – Lt. Governor Dick Posthumous. So Engler essentially had offered Romney a shot at Sen. Carl Levin, who had waxed Mitt’s sister-in-law, Ronna Romney, in his previous race.
Having already been beaten by a Kennedy in Massachusetts, its no wonder he passed on a chance to run against a Levin in Michigan. So much for the “golden” Romney name.
Meanwhile, the Massachusetts GOP cleared the way for him, easing incumbent Republican Gov. Jane Swift out of the race in his favor, setting the stage for a clear shot at a Governors mansion held by Republicans since 1991.
And that my friends is how Massachusetts got the honor of calling smooth-talking Mitt Romney their own. Of course, it’s not surprising that he would change his mind about where he calls home, since he’s changed his position on just about everything else.
…happily let Michigan claim Mitt as their own…
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What do ya think?
I noted this at the time of the Herald article, but how golden exactly is the Romney name in Michigan? George is the only Romney ever to win an election there, isn’t he? Lenore (Mitt’s Mom), Ronna (Mitt’s ex-Sister-in-law) and Scott (Mitt’s brother) all lost in statewide races there.
as the saying goes. i left MI in the late 90s, but i can say with assurance that the name romney meant little more then than does the name smith anywhere else. i wasn’t aware of englers ‘invitation’ to willard to run aginst levin. was he trying to help him flame out early? levin is the MI equivalent of ted kennedy. a repub running against him is to tilt at windmills. pretty funny.
…the visual was absolutely dreadful. Romney was standing in front of a prop plane and there was nothing behind him except part of the prop. No sign or banner, no confetti falling, and the crowd seemed flat and completely contrived.
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I am not capping on him just because I don’t like him. It seemed really really laim and flat.