Romney rejects calls that he step down

The day after he stirred the political waters with his announcement he would not seek a second term, Governor Mitt Romney said yesterday that he had no intention of walking away from his job before his term ended and said calls for his resignation were ''silly."

Romney said the suggestions he turn the office over to Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey are coming from partisan sources and ''one or two editorial writers." But he said that he has the support of the voters in his determination to serve out his term, which expires in early January 2007.

''That's not the response of the people of Massachusetts who elected me," Romney said during a State House press conference on the state's new auto insurance rates. ''I understand that the people who don't like my politics and wished they could get me out of politics, but too bad."

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Deval Patrick called for Romney's resignation yesterday. The Boston Globe's editorial page called on Romney to resign, and The Boston Herald's editorial page urged Romney to ''turn over the day job" to Healey.

The governor pointed out that some of the same sources that are demanding that he resign did not call on John F. Kerry to step down from the US Senate because he was running for president in 2004. Last June, Romney called on Kerry to resign, asserting that he had missed 87 percent of Senate roll calls in 2004 and that Massachusetts was therefore not being fully represented.

''The idea of leaving before your term is up because you are not running for reelection? Has that ever happened in America?" Romney said.

Romney continued to downplay his presidential ambitions, although his announcement has been widely seen as the first step to launching a presidential campaign. In an interview with Neil Cavuto of Fox News yesterday, Romney said a decision on a presidential race is ''way off."

Cavuto also asked Romney whether his Mormon faith would hurt him among conservative Christian voters. ''Republicans don't apply a litmus test on religion," Romney said.