Romney hits campaign trail for Benson
NASHUA -- Governor Mitt Romney ventured north yesterday to assist fellow Republican Governor Craig Benson, who is locked in a tight re-election battle.
Traveling across New Hampshire's southern tier in Benson's bus, Romney dipped into diners and an autumn fair to extol what he called Benson's efforts to keep taxes low and aid small businesses during his first two-year term.
"You've got a governor here that wants to make sure you keep rolling down an economic highway of growth and success," Romney told a group of 35 people at a small business in Nashua. "Keeping the tax burden down, the regulation low, making the government work with the people."
Benson, an entrepreneur who ran for office for the first time in 2002, faces a stiff challenge from Democrat John Lynch, a businessman who polls show is running closely behind Benson. Lynch sought votes in the populous southern portion of the state yesterday as well.
In addition to his own race, Benson faces the challenge of delivering New Hampshire for President Bush, who polls show is deadlocked with Senator John Kerry.
With New Hampshire's growing number of Massachusetts transplants, Romney's presence on the trail -- in Hampton, Salem, and Nashua -- was clearly helpful, with many voters recognizing him before they did Benson.
An appreciative Benson said of his GOP colleague, "He is innovative and creative in an environment that is a little tougher. He's done a great job."
Romney, as he often does in Republican circles outside the state, poked fun at his party's minority status in Massachusetts, calling himself the governor from the "Deep South." Romney quipped about his state's higher taxes and deadpanned about efforts to lure New Hampshire businesses south.
But yesterday, Romney said, was not a day for interstate competition. "New Hampshire ought to know a good thing when they got it," he said of Benson, "and this is a good thing." 