Mitt Romney’s $10,000 bet challenge sparks buzz not for substance, but for amount

By Glen Johnson, Globe Staff

DES MOINES - Mitt Romney’s frugality despite being a millionaire is legendary, but the Republican presidential candidate seemed to undercut his reputation last night by offering rival Rick Perry a $10,000 bet during a debate.

“I’ll tell you what,” Romney said after the Texas governor accused him of writing that the insurance mandate included in his Massachusetts healthcare overhaul should be a model for the rest of the country.

“Ten thousand bucks,” said Romney. “Ten-thousand dollar bet?”

Perry, chuckling as a jolt went through the audience at Drake University, replied: “I’m not in the bettin’ business.”

The comment generated buzz not so much for the substance of the dispute, which stemmed from a passage in the hardcover version of Romney’s book “No Apology” that was deleted from the subsequent paperback edition.

Romney has written and said that the insurance mandate that was a key component of the 2006 law he signed while Massachusetts governor could be copied by other states. But he has repeatedly argued that he does not support the same component in the federal health care overhaul signed by President Obama in 2010, because it imposes such a mandate on the states.

In a nod to federalism, Romney argues states should be free to make such choices for themselves.

Rather, the buzz last night stemmed from the figure: $10,000.

It wasn’t $1, or $1,000, or $1 million dollars, but an intermediary sum that came off sounding like an easily producable amount for Romney, a former venture capitalist with three homes and whose net worth is estimated at up to $250 million.

Adding to the focus was that Romney - who grew up in a wealthy Detroit suburb as the son of an auto executive - issued the challenge to Perry - who was born into a house in Paint Creek, Texas, without running water.

Aides argued that Romney won the bet just on the results of the exchange: Perry backed down after his rival challenged him in stark terms over his statements.

But even in their response, they attracted attention to the atypical amount proffered by their candidate.

“I’ve asked people, ‘I’ll bet you a million dollars,’ lots of times,” said chief Romney strategist Stuart Stevens. “It’s a very human thing, to sort of try to finally get some guy to shut up who knows he’s not telling the truth. And guess what? It worked. Perry did shut up, and he did back down, because he knows it’s not the truth.”

Perry said today, though, that he was “a little taken aback” by such a bold challenge.

“Driving out to the station this morning, I’m pretty sure I didn’t drive by a house that anyone in Iowa would even think about that a $10,000 bet was possible,” Perry said during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.”

He said Romney was “a little out of touch with the normal Iowa citizen.”

Aides to another nomination rival, former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, also pounced on the comment.

Before the debate was even over, they had registered a new Internet domain name: www.10Kbet.com.

“While Jon Huntsman signed free-market health care without a mandate, Mitt Romney was arguing that his government-run, mandate approach should be a model for the nation,” Huntsman spokesman Michael Levoff said in a statement. “I guess he owes Rick Perry $10,000.”

To back its claim, the Huntsman campaign cited a 2007 interview with The Des Moines Register in which Romney called a mandate “a better way to go” than the insurance ideas being devised by some other states.

Democrats and their support groups jumped on the comment for an array of reasons.

“Millionaire Mitt Romney immediately defaulted to a $10,000 bet tonight,” said a mid-debate email from Josh Dorner of Think Progress. “Who wants to take bets ($20 is more my speed) about if or when he’ll release his tax returns?”

The Democratic National Committee also immediately began emailing and tweeting its analysis of what $10,000 could buy the average American.

It is more that four moths pay “for most Americans,” more than the average in-state, four-year public college tuition, and almost three times wheat the average American spends on groceries each year, the DNC reported, cited Census and other government data.

“Mitt Romney may not know what $10,000 means to middle-class families, but here’s what the average American family can buy with $10,000,” said the DNC.

The Register also chimed in with an even higher critique: The newspaper noted that gambling is opposed by the leadership of Romney’s own Mormon church.