Mitt Romney claims support of former Reagan administration officials

By Shira Schoenberg, Globe Correspondent

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney may not have liked President Ronald Reagan in 1994; but he sure loves him today.

The former Massachusetts governor today unveiled a coalition of “Reaganites for Romney,” led by Jerry Carmen, a Reagan administration official and former ambassador to the United Nations.

Romney, in a release announcing the coalition of 35 public figures formerly associated with Reagan, said the individuals “were part of a movement that changed America and the rest of the world.”

“The smaller government policies of the Reagan era helped turn around a struggling economy and create millions of jobs,” Romney said. “And the strong defense of freedom around the world led to the crumbling of empires and dictatorships.”

That’s a big jump from the Romney who during his 1994 Senate race with Edward Kennedy tried to reject the Democrat’s attempts to tie him to Reagan. “I was an independent during that time of Reagan-Bush,” Romney said during a debate. “I’m not trying to return to Reagan-Bush.”

But the release of the Reagan coalition comes as Romney is in a tight race with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is ahead in most of the early state polls and is trying to claim the Reagan mantle for himself.

At Saturday night’s ABC News/Yahoo News debate in Iowa, Gingrich mentioned, “I worked with Ronald Reagan in the early ‘80s,” as he talked about Reagan’s job creation record. He later brought up Reagan’s famously calling the Soviet Union an “evil empire.” “I am a Reaganite, I’m proud to be a Reaganite,” Gingrich said. His campaign press release that night was titled “Newt Gingrich claims the Reagan mantle.”

Now, Romney is trying to reclaim the heritage of the conservative president. “Supporters of Ronald Reagan are supporting Mitt Romney because he is the best chance conservatives have to return to the prosperous Reagan years,” Carmen says in the release. “Mitt Romney will restore faith in our country in much the same way Ronald Reagan did thirty years ago.”

Other Reaganites supporting Romney include William Barr, who served on Reagan’s domestic policy staff and later became a US attorney general, five former ambassadors, numerous administration officials, and several Reagan campaign activists.