Romney's go-to guy for conservatives

On Nov. 30, as Mitt Romney pitched his conservative message to a major Republican gathering in Miami, the nitty-gritty politicking of his presidential campaign was going on privately, 1,250 miles north.

The setting was a dinner at Princeton University for leading conservative intellectuals and opinion-makers. At a corner table, a small group challenged Romney surrogate Peter G. Flaherty on his boss's evolution from moderate to conservative. Why, they pressed, should conservatives believe it's genuine?

"They just launched right into him," said Princeton professor Robert P. George, who was there.

But Flaherty, a devout Roman Catholic with deeply held socially conservative views, gave a deeply personal response, according to those at the table. His response, according to George, was this: "Obviously I've got to believe he's for real, or I wouldn't be wasting my time."

With Romney on the defensive about his previous positions, Flaherty, as Romney's point man for conservative outreach, is working hard to contain the damage during small but important moments like that one. Trading on his sincerity and reputation as a man of family and faith, the soft-spoken former prosecutor has emerged as one of Romney's most instrumental operatives.

Flaherty, 41, isn't just defusing concerns about Romney's past support for abortion rights and gay rights. He's also busy building relationships with prominent religious leaders, and helping Romney understand hot-button issues such as stem-cell research.

"When you see someone like Peter on Governor Romney's team, not just as show but actually doing real work, that does send a strong signal to conservatives," said Gary L. Bauer, president of the group American Values.

And that work is bearing fruit: Last week, after heavy courting by Flaherty, James Bopp Jr., a top conservative lawyer and anti abortion leader, joined Romney's campaign as a special adviser.

Flaherty and Romney come from different faiths, different parts of the country, and different generations, but they are working closely together in the early days of Romney's presidential bid. Conservatives say Romney, as he tries to woo the right, is lucky to have such a straight-shooting ambassador.

Flaherty was practicing that diplomacy in Washington late last month at a summit of nearly 800 conservatives sponsored by National Review magazine.

"Oh, Bethanie, how are you?" Flaherty asked Bethanie Swendsen, media manager for the Family Research Council, kissing her on the cheek during a reception. "Have you seen the governor yet?"

A few seconds later, she was shaking hands with Romney.

Flaherty then grabbed Yuval Levin, a former White House specialist on bioethics and "life" issues. "I just want to bring you over real quick," he said, and did.

"I'm enthusiastic for the rest of the country to know the Governor Romney that I know and the record that he should be very proud of," Flaherty said in an interview last week. "Because when the rest of the country gets to know him as a person and as a governor, I'm convinced they will have the same respect for him that I do."

It's clear in conversations with Flaherty that he believes he's most effective as an earnest, honest broker for Romney.

Flaherty was born in Brighton and raised in Arlington, the middle child of three brothers. In the Catholic community, some would say he grew up in St. Agnes parish.

After Matignon High School in Cambridge, he went to Holy Cross and then earned a law degree at night at New England School of Law while working a clerical job in the Suffolk district attorney's office. Former Suffolk district attorney Ralph C. Martin II eventually tapped Flaherty to be a prosecutor. By the time Flaherty left in 2001, he was an assistant district attorney in the homicide unit.

Flaherty also worked briefly at Walden Media, a successful movie production company run by his two brothers, Michael and Chip. But since 2002, despite briefly considering a run for Middlesex district attorney last year, Flaherty has been a top aide to Romney.

From Nov. 18, 2003, the day the Supreme Judicial Court issued its watershed ruling legalizing gay marriage, Flaherty established himself at the State House as Romney's go-to guy on social issues that also includes stem-cell research and abortion. He has since become almost a household name in conservative circles.

"Peter has been extremely influential in being a one-man think tank for the governor," said Maggie Gallagher, a prominent writer and activist against gay marriage.

From Beacon Hill to the presidential trail, it is hard to find anyone with anything negative to say about Flaherty. He's known as a quintessential family man. He lives in Belmont with his wife, Jennifer Mugar Flaherty (the daughter of Boston businessman and philanthropist David Mugar) and their three boys. Some nights, Flaherty said, he leaves work to read to his sons before bed, then returns to the office.

Because conservatives hold Flaherty in high esteem, his devotion to Romney carries sway. Ramesh Ponnuru, a well-known writer, cited the phrase "personnel as policy." Flaherty's presence, Ponnuru explained, reassures some conservatives about Romney.

"The movement at this point is trying to figure out if Mitt Romney is like Peter," said Seth Leibsohn, a fellow at the conservative Claremont Institute.

Flaherty said his biggest challenge so far has been the resurfacing last month of clips from Romney's 1994 debate with Senator Edward M. Kennedy, in which Romney is seen espousing beliefs favoring abortion and a series of other liberal viewpoints. (As of yesterday afternoon, it had been viewed on YouTube more than 56,000 times.)

Flaherty said he handles questions about it the same way Romney does: by acknowledging Romney's shifts and pointing skeptics to his record as governor -- a record of working to ban gay marriage, opposing stem-cell research involving embryo cloning, and vetoing a bill on emergency contraception, which some conservatives consider abortion.

"So he can walk people through the chronology of how the governor dealt with different issues, what his thinking is, and I think that has a lot of credibility," said Ralph E. Reed Jr., the former Christian Coalition leader.

But Flaherty has tough work ahead as rivals such as Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas try to persuade GOP primary voters that Romney is not the conservative he claims to be. Brownback campaign manager Rob Wasinger said in an e-mail: "Peter is a strong and principled conservative, for whom I have enormous respect. However, I certainly do not envy his current job of trying to convince social conservatives that Mitt Romney hasn't flip-flopped on virtually every major issue of concern to them."

So person by person, Flaherty -- whether it's at Romney's Belmont home, where leading evangelicals gathered last fall, or at an Orlando law firm, where conservative activists met with Romney last month -- is actively engaged in getting conservatives on board and keeping them there.

How important that work will be to Romney's success is hard to overstate. Romney perhaps best described Flaherty's significance when he introduced him to former Tennessee senator Fred Thompson in Washington last weekend. "Helps manage my life," Romney said.

Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com.