On big day, Mass. gets little note
DEARBORN, Mich. -- It's been his foil, his punch line, and his source of political achievement, but yesterday Massachusetts earned just two passing mentions in Mitt Romney's presidential announcement.
Though a Bay Stater for most of the past 40 years, Romney paid the Commonwealth little heed during his speech, focusing instead on what his native Michigan has meant to him and his family.
After a passing mention of Massachusetts as he touted his deep experience of "innovating and transforming," Romney cited it again only in talking about how American families are made stronger when children have a mother and a father, healthcare is within everyone's reach, schools are good, and taxes are low.
"This was the agenda I pursued as governor of Massachusetts, and it's the agenda I will pursue if I'm elected your president," he said.
And that was it. No self-congratulations over the landmark healthcare plan he helped craft. No boasting of how he steered the state through financial crisis in 2003. No recounting of battle stories from his bouts against gay marriage.
By contrast, Romney warmly recalled visiting all of Michigan's counties during his parents' runs for elected office. He noted that he and his wife were born in the state and fell in love there. And he said he'd always planned to return to Michigan, even taking the bar exam there after law school.
In fact, Romney spent more time talking about his father's record in Michigan than talking about his own in Massachusetts.
Throughout that political career, Romney and Massachusetts have had a complicated relationship. When he first ran for office, in 1994 against Senator Edward M. Kennedy, he ran as a fiscally conservative, socially moderate Republican in the mold of then-governor William F. Weld. In 2002, Romney appealed to suburbanites looking for a strong, practical manager and counterweight to the largely Democratic Legislature.
But as his governorship wore on, Romney, in tacking to the right on social issues and poking fun at Massachusetts' liberal reputation, alienated some of those same centrist voters. Recognizing his gradual detachment from the state, Romney saw that it made more sense to launch his candidacy from Michigan, said Bill Ballenger, who publishes the newsletter Inside Michigan Politics.
"I think at this point he's decided that he's burnt enough bridges in Massachusetts that he'd be better off going home where he was born and brought up," he said.
Romney, however, has hardly abandoned Massachusetts. He is basing his campaign headquarters in Boston and held his first major fund-raiser in the city a month ago. 