Faltering in polls, Romney takes to airwaves

Mitt Romney, behind in early New Hampshire polls but flush with campaign cash, will launch a television commercial in New Hampshire and Iowa today, becoming the first major presidential candidate to take to the airwaves in those early battleground states.

Titled "Unplugged," the commercial was shot in a stripped-down style with hand-held digital video cameras during his announcement tour last week, giving viewers the illusion of having an up-close view of the candidate.

"I believe the American people are overtaxed and the government is overfed," Romney says in the ad, speaking before a flag-draped stage, as his audience breaks into cheers. "I believe we're spending too much money, and that's got to stop. I believe our laws ought to be written by the people and not by unelected judges."

Sixty-second and 30-second versions of the ad will begin airing today in New Hampshire and Iowa and will expand to South Carolina, Michigan, and Florida next week.

The campaign would not say how much it is spending on the ads or how long they will run.

Romney's presidential fund-raising machine has brought in millions this year. Last Thursday alone, he raised more than $1 million at a Boston fund-raiser.

But the former Massachusetts governor has ground to make up in New Hampshire, a poll of likely Republican primary voters conducted in the first week of February indicated.

Of those surveyed in the poll by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, 13 percent of likely Republican primary voters said they supported Romney, compared with 28 percent for Senator John McCain of Arizona and 27 percent for former New York mayor Rudolph W . Giuliani. Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, had 9 percent.

Andrew E. Smith, director of the Survey Center, said it's a bit early to run television commercials, but Romney needs to be seen as "a player, not in the second tier of candidates.

"And I think that's what Romney needs to do right now; he's really at the border line," Smith said. "I think he needs to boost his image so . . . it's not seen as McCain versus Giuliani; it's McCain, Giuliani, and Romney."

Romney spokesman Kevin Madden said the ad is not a reaction to polls, but rather a logical next step in introducing the candidate. "The announcement last week generated a lot of interest in Mitt Romney, yet Mitt Romney is still someone who is not well known."

"These ads are aimed at engaging interested voters and telling them who Mitt Romney is and why he's the right choice as our next president," Madden said.

In perhaps another sign of her increasingly prominent place in her husband's political life, the commercial begins with Ann Romney introducing her husband as a man who has "solved problems that people said were nearly impossible."

As a series of photographs of the candidate appear on the screen, a narrator gives a short-hand biography: "Business legend. Rescued the Olympics. The Republican governor who turned around a Democratic state."

The rest of the ad features Romney making his own case to Iowa and Michigan voters, arguing that the country is facing a critical time in its history.

"This is not a time for more talk and dithering in Washington," he says. "It's a time for action."

Madden said the ad's stripped-down production style was designed "to get people as close to being on the campaign trail with the governor as you can get."

At Romney's appearance in Des Moines last week, his chief media strategist, Alex Castellanos, could be seen directing a crew of videographers to get the right shots as Romney and his wife addressed supporters from a riser in the center of the crowd.

Castellanos, who is often with Romney at major campaign events, is one of the GOP's best-known ad makers and has worked on several presidential campaigns.

Scott Helman of the Globe staff contributed to this report.