Romney cultivates connections
VIP links expand across the country
CARLSBAD, Calif. -- Governor Mitt Romney arrived at the Republican Governors Association's annual conference here last week with his star already bright.
He's one of the best-known governors, is on most short lists for the 2008 GOP presidential nomination, and charms Republican crowds wherever he goes. Conservative activist Grover Norquist, in a piece called ''The Best and the Brightest" in The American Spectator magazine this month, devotes more ink to Romney than any other 2008 hopeful except Senator John McCain of Arizona.
Yet if Romney arrived at the conference in a strong position politically, he left even stronger.
The three-day event, a flurry of lobbying, networking, and hobnobbing among more than 600 party bigwigs, donors, and other participants, was in many ways Romney's show. He was elected chairman of the governors' group, he attracted much of the press spotlight, and his name was on many people's lips as one of the party's leading figures.
But star power and media attention aside, Romney's biggest asset politically may be something much more tangible: his Rolodex.
Romney's participation in the Republican Governors Association conference provided a glimpse of just how far the tentacles of his emerging political network reach, and just how useful that reach could be if he mounts a national campaign. ''He's building a network of contacts around the country," said Saul Anuzis, chairman of the Republican Party in Michigan, one of the states where Romney is best connected.
Consider the new staff leadership of the governors' group. Romney's new executive director is Philip A. Musser, a former senior official in the US Department of Housing and Urban Development who has worked for the Republican National Committee, the Bush-Cheney reelection team, and Senator Bob Dole's presidential campaign in 1996. Musser's new political director is Gentry Collins, a specialist in Iowa politics who played a key role in President Bush's victory there in 2004.
Musser hails from the same lobbying firm, Dutko Worldwide, as Ron Kaufman, the Republican national committeeman from Massachusetts with considerable ties to the GOP establishment in Washington. Kaufman seemed to know just about every mover and shaker at the conference. He halted one group's conversation last week just by walking into the room, when someone said, ''Hey everybody, it's Ron Kaufman!"
Romney had several well-connected advisers on the trip with him, including Mike Murphy, his top strategist who also participated in a panel on the Republican political climate; Trent Wisecup, who runs Romney's Commonwealth PAC, which distributes campaign contributions in key presidential states such as Iowa, Michigan, and South Carolina; and Spencer Zwick, Romney's former deputy chief of staff who now runs his charitable foundation and coordinates his out-of-state trips.
Potentially useful connections also abound. Romney's spokeswoman, Julie Teer, worked on Bush's reelection campaign in New Hampshire with Mike DuHaime, who is now political director of the Republican National Committee under chairman Ken Mehlman. Mehlman and DuHaime were at the conference, as was Romney's chief of staff, Beth Myers, who worked in Texas in the 1980s with Bush strategist Karl Rove.
Romney, well practiced at it by now, was largely successful at dodging speculation about 2008. Asked at a news conference Thursday why governors made the best presidents, Romney immediately turned to Florida Governor Jeb Bush to answer, saying, to laughs from other governors, ''I think maybe Governor Bush is the best [one] to answer that."
Others at the conference who were asked about Romney sidestepped the 2008 buzz, too.
''I am not going to comment on who's a great candidate for 2008," Mehlman said. ''I think whatever he decides he wants to do he's likely to be successful at, because I think he's a great leader."
Part of the reason Romney could not avoid the hype at the conference, Anuzis offered, is that he came off so well. ''You almost hate to use the word, but he surely looked presidential," Anuzis said.
Romney aides respond to questions about his national ambitions by saying he is concentrating on the job he has. Teer said the governor had ''an aggressive agenda to create jobs, bring real healthcare reform to the citizens of Massachusetts, and reform education." ''That's what he's focused on and that's his first priority," she said.
If Romney keeps the timetable he has set for himself, he will announce within three weeks whether he is running for reelection. Massachusetts Democrats are continuing to ratchet up their criticism of Romney's out-of-state travel, but the governor is already filling up his calendar with more political trips. In February alone, Romney is expected at Republican fund-raisers with hundreds of people in Michigan and South Carolina, and the Republican Governors Association has a multiday conference in Washington.
Romney packed in three nonconference political events in his weeklong trip to California. He spoke at a fund-raiser in Orange County Tuesday night and at a GOP women's group luncheon in Carlsbad on Thursday; tomorrow he is scheduled to stop by a volunteer-appreciation event for the San Diego County Republican Party.
Scott Helman can be reached at shelman@globe.com. 