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It is one of Mitt Romney's favorite selling points. Romney often notes that as governor of Massachusetts, he worked with a mostly Democratic legislature to tackle his state's problems.
But inside the Massachusetts State House, down the hallway from Romney's official portrait that hangs inside the governor's office, longtime lawmakers on both sides of the aisle remember a more CEO-style leader. Robert Hedlund, the second-ranking Republican in the state Senate, said Romney tried to carry over the corporate culture that existed at his former private investment firm, Bain Capital, in a way that sometimes alienated Democrats who were accustomed to a different way of doing things.
It was all about policy. He didn't trade jobs for votes. He didn't trade capital projects for votes. So that came back to bite him a little bit," Hedlund said. Romney replaced many of the career bureaucrats in the executive staff with private sector outsiders. At times, Hedlund argued, that management structure produced results in balancing the state's budget. I cast over vetoes and cut entire programs. But as Axelrod pointed out, the size of government -- both state spending and the number of government jobs -- actually grew on Romney's watch, and he avoided raising taxes largely by raising fees, on such things as vehicle registration and marriage licenses, instead.
Given that Obama is campaigning on a platform of raising taxes and increasing government spending -- er, "investment" -- you'd think Democrats would balk at criticizing some of these moves, which seem to show Romney as more of a fiscal moderate than his rhetoric indicates. But Axelrod argued that raising fees was an overly regressive way to bring in state revenue, and that in falling short of his promises Romney showed he couldn't be trusted. But he did come into a situation where the budget was in a bad state, the economy was in a bad state, and he maintained a balanced budget along with a fairly fiscally conservative [Democratic] speaker of the House.
At Thursday's Boston presser, Axelrod was preceded onstage by four Massachusetts Democratic officials, including the current lieutenant governor. The phrase "health care" did not pass their lips. That shouldn't be surprising -- after all, the Obama team just spent the Republican primary repeatedly reminding voters that Romney's Massachusetts health-care reform was a key inspiration for Obamacare.
For the same reason, Romney rarely mentions his crowning achievement in Massachusetts, either, even though, as Ryan Lizza detailed in The New Yorker last year , it was intended to serve as the capstone to his legacy and potentially his ticket to the presidency. The result has been broadly popular and is largely considered a success. In a lengthy examination of Romneycare last year, the Globe called it "a revolution that basically worked," securing coverage for the vast majority of the state's residents "without devastating state finances.
Romney got through the GOP primary by all but disowning his health-care bill, trying in vain to distinguish it from Obama's achievement and straining to argue that its approach was not applicable on the federal level. He hasn't addressed it since wrapping up the Republican nomination, but it's a debate that's likely to come roaring back when the Supreme Court issues its Obamacare verdict at the end of this month.
Romney campaigned on a promise to clean up Massachusetts' notoriously cronyistic state government, painting his opponent, the sitting state treasurer, as a product of a backroom-dealing Beacon Hill culture.
But his efforts once he was elected were somewhat halfhearted and largely fruitless. One example was the state's judiciary, a notorious hotbed of patronage. Romney's attempts to reform it didn't succeed, and instead, he ended up succumbing to the status quo, the Washington Post reports. His attempt to consolidate transportation agencies was shot down by the legislature, as was his push to remove from the state university system William Bulger, brother of mobster "Whitey" Bulger.
At a farm in New Hampshire on June 2, , Mitt Romney announced the official start of his campaign for the presidential election. During his campaign, Romney took many standard Republican positions on taxes, the economy and fighting terrorism, while consistently and vocally criticizing his opponent, Democrat President Barack Obama.
Specifically, Romney denounced President Obama's health-care reform program—a stance that earned him criticism from the press, as the president's health-care plan was similar to the Massachusetts plan that Romney supported as governor. Additionally, throughout the presidential race, critics charged Romney with changing his position on several key issues, including abortion; Romney had supported Roe v.
Wade —the U. Supreme Court decision upholding a woman's right to an abortion—while campaigning for a Senate seat in , but maintained an ardent pro-life stance throughout his campaign for the presidency. From the start of his campaign, Romney emerged as the frontrunner for the Republican nomination. In January , Romney scored a decisive victory in the New Hampshire Republican primary by capturing more than 39 percent of votes.
As the race continued, Rick Santorum became his greatest competition, winning several states. However, Romney secured a substantial lead in the number of delegates needed to clinch the nomination. In April , Romney benefited from a narrowing of the field when Santorum announced that he was suspending his campaign. That left only Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich as Republican competitors, with Gingrich soon throwing in the towel as well.
Romney's campaign met with negative publicity in July , when President Obama's campaign ran ads claiming that his opponent was the head of Bain Capital until , not , as was previously stated. Around that same time, news reports began to circulate regarding economy-stifling practices by Bain Capital; according to the reports, Romney's company had invested in several businesses that specialized in relocating jobs overseas.
Romney's campaign fired back with its own political ads, which claimed that Obama was more interested in helping his donors than looking out for the American public. This was only the beginning of the slinging of barbs and arrows that would occur between the two candidates along the campaign trail. In August , Romney announced year-old U. Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his running mate for vice president.
The announcement ended months-long speculation over the potential vice-presidential candidates of the election, as media attention began to heavily focus on Ryan, a fiscal conservative and chair of the House of Representatives Budget Committee. On August 28, , Romney became the Republican Party's official presidential nominee, receiving 2, delegate votes—nearly double the required 1,—on the first day of the Republican National Convention, held in Tampa, Florida.
During the convention, Romney and Ryan received support from several fellow Republican politicians, including McCain. What they want to know is, whether we still have faith Mitt Romney has that faith, and I trust him to lead us. Romney made headlines after the first presidential debate with Obama in early October He gave a strong performance, receiving praise for his speaking skills from citizens and critics alike.
Most critics agreed that Romney won the debate, and that his performance significantly boosted his public perception and status in the presidential race.
However, Obama was praised for his performance during the second and third debates, with many critics claiming that the president had won both. As each state announced its election results on November 6, , many Americans clung to the edge of their seats. Just before midnight, the results were announced: In a tight race, Romney was defeated by Obama, with the president receiving just over half of the popular vote and around 60 percent of the electoral vote.
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