After newspaper report, Falwell says he hasn't endorsed Romney
MIAMI -- Governor Mitt Romney, who has assiduously courted evangelical Christians in preparation for a probable 2008 presidential campaign, was thrust into an awkward position yesterday after a Mississippi newspaper reported that he said he had the backing of the Rev. Jerry Falwell and other religious leaders.
Falwell immediately distanced himself from the remark, reported in the Clarion-Ledger newspaper in Jackson, Miss. He insisted that he has not endorsed Romney, while the governor said his comments were taken out of context and that he never implied Falwell had endorsed him.
"It has come to my attention that a statement attributed to Governor Mitt Romney suggests that I have endorsed his candidacy for President," Falwell said in the statement. "I have met with and respect Governor Romney, as I do many of the other prospective candidates for President.
"If Governor Romney becomes the Republican candidate, I could certainly support him," he said. "However, I have not endorsed or offered support for Governor Romney or any other candidate and have no plans to do so in the immediate future."
The support of evangelical voters is important for any GOP presidential candidate but particularly so for Romney, because he often faces questions about whether his Mormon faith will hinder his appeals to conservative Christians. Romney invited Falwell and other prominent evangelical leaders to his Belmont home last month to seek guidance.
The Clarion-Ledger, which covered Romney's appearance Tuesday at the annual banquet of the Rankin County Republicans in Jackson, reported that Romney touted the support of Falwell and other religious conservatives in discussing his efforts to win over Republican primary voters.
The paper, however, did not quote Romney saying directly that Falwell supported him, a point that Romney's spokesman, Eric Fehrnstrom, emphasized yesterday.
"What he said was that Jerry Falwell has said in the past that he could support a candidate of a different faith if that person agreed with him on moral and social issues," Fehrnstrom said.
An aide to Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi provided a transcript last night of Romney's comment that corroborated Fehrnstrom's account, showing that Romney said that Falwell and others have said they would be willing to work with him if he is the nominee.
The governor, meanwhile, was in Miami to kick off the annual conference of the Republican Governors Association at the Doral Golf Resort & Spa.
But the conference is abuzz about 2008, not the governors: Romney and potential presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee, the Arkansas governor, are at the event; another likely rival, US Senator John McCain of Arizona, is in Miami for meetings and a reception; and Senate majority leader Bill Frist of Tennessee unexpectedly announced he wouldn't seek the White House.
Also yesterday, Romney's political action committee, the Commonwealth PAC, announced that a slew of new advisers had joined his political team, including Kevin Madden, a veteran Washington, D.C., communications specialist. Madden served as spokesman for the last two House majority leaders, John A. Boehner of Ohio and Tom DeLay of Texas, and was part of President Bush's 2004 reelection campaign.
Romney's PAC also announced that two leading economists and former chairmen of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, Glenn Hubbard and Greg Mankiw, would advise him on the economy, as will Cesar Conda, a former top domestic policy adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney. The PAC also announced several new advisers in the Southeast.
Rick Klein of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com. 