McCain Looks To Steal Some Mass. Republicans
Appropos of our earlier post about Ex-MA Gov. Mitt Romney's 2/15 attempt to showcase his ties to Massachusetts Republicans, Hotline contributor Kevin F. Rennie adds this following:
The power of embarrassment is often underestimated in political circles. The McCain campaign knows its worth.
Expect the Arizona senator’s presidential operation to snag endorsements from a gaggle of the tiny Massachusetts Republican legislative caucus. One insider says some of the GOP legislators were very impressed with McCain when they met with him last fall. That meeting miffed Mitt. The governor and his wife then sent generous contributions to Republican incumbents (of which there are few).
Massachusetts Republican party treasurer Brent Andersen says there’s “quite a bit of support for Senator McCain” in the commonwealth. The Auburn conservative is among the McCain people. He’s also one of the many “Republicans turned off by the jokes Governor Romney makes about Massachusetts when he’s in the South and Midwest.”
Andersen, whose been the party treasurer for the past 5 years, says Romney gets credit for raising a lot of money, but he was “totally unsuccessful” at party building. There are fewer registered Republicans in the state now than when Romney was elected, Anderson points out. “Some party people feel he abandoned the party.” [KEVIN F. RENNIE]
Romney’s well-publicized mocking of the state on his trips also made Republicans at home uncomfortable. Some members of the small Republican brigade on Beacon Hill are still smarting from being largely ignored by their governor during his 4 year term.
Bay State Republicans think that Romney’s mighty efforts to add to Republican ranks in '04 were ill-conceived because they reflected Romney’s suddenly-conservative agenda, rather than the one he was elected on two years before. The Republican survivors thought the campaign to bolster their numbers was more an attempt to elect some mini-Mitts rather a considered plan taking into account the dynamics of individual districts and the state’s aversion to flag-flying conservatives.
And then there were the conversions on social issues. In one of the few places in the nation where Rockefeller Republicans still have some sway, Romney’s abrupt change in philosophy on abortion and same-sex marriage left party stalwarts who had vouched for his moderate credentials in 2002 feeling “betrayed and embarrassed,” reports a connected Boston activist associated with no presidential campaign.
Like predecessors Weld and Cellucci, “Mitt checked out on them” in the pursuit of another office. Left behind as a permanent minority, the locals may extract some revenge under the cover of hope and reason.
Moderate Mitt won Massachusetts in 2002 but active Republicans think the new right-wing version would get crushed at home in 2008. Optimists think their only shot at a revival next year will be with McCain or Giuliani at the top of the ticket. McCain’s recruitment of Boston Republican political consultant Rob Gray put some steel into spines that might otherwise wobble at the notion of publicly supporting anyone but Romney.
McCain showcased some local leg on Wednesday when 125 locals turned out for an organization meeting in Dedham, Massachusetts. Meeting was of particular note because there are few venues or occasions when that many state Republicans are gathered together in one room—and they didn’t need a boost from likely McCain supporter and state hero, Red Sox Curt Schilling.
Rennie, an attorney, is a former Republican state senator in Connecticut and a columnist for the Hartford Courant. Disclosure: in 1999, he attended a McCain For President fundraiser and contributed to the campaign.
