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Willard Mitt Romney
70th Governor of Massachusetts
In office January 2, 2003 – January 4, 2007
Lieutenant	Kerry Healey
Preceded by	Jane M. Swift (acting)
Succeeded by	Deval Patrick
Personal details
Born	(1947-03-12) March 12, 1947 (age 77) Detroit, Michigan
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Ann Romney
Alma mater	Brigham Young University, Harvard University

Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12 1947) was the 70th Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Elected in 2002, Romney served one term and did not seek re-election in 2006; his term expired January 4, 2007.

Romney is a Republican candidate in the 2008 United States presidential election.

He is a former CEO of Bain & Company, a management consulting firm, and the co-founder of Bain Capital, a private equity investment firm. He also served as president and CEO of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games held in Salt Lake City.

Biography

Born on March 12, 1947 in Detroit, Michigan, Mitt Romney is the son of 1968 presidential candidate George W. Romney and 1970 U.S. Senate candidate Lenore Romney. He was named after hotel magnate J. Willard Marriott, his father's best friend,

Romney married his high school girlfriend Ann Davies in 1968. Both are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as Mormons, though Ann was raised Episcopalian. They have five sons as well as ten grandchildren. They have homes in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Utah.

Romney's great-grandparents were polygamist Mormons who fled to Mexico in 1884 after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld various anti-polygamy laws in 1879. Romney's father was born in Chihuahua, Mexico, and moved to the United States in 1912 after the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution.

Early life and education

Mitt Romney graduated from the Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills (now Cranbrook Kingswood School). After attending Stanford University for four quarters, Romney served in France for 30 months as an LDS missionary.

Upon returning from France he married Ann Davies in a civil service for the attendance of Ann's parents and guests, followed by the actual marriage ceremony in a LDS temple, in which only certain members of the LDS church could attend. He transferred to Brigham Young University, where he was valedictorian, earning his B.A. summa cum laude in 1971. In 1975, Romney graduated from a joint JD/MBA program coordinated between Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School. He graduated cum laude from the law school and was named a Baker Scholar for graduating in the top five percent of his business school class.

Business career

After graduating from Harvard, Romney went to work for the The Boston Consulting Group, where he had interned during the summer of 1974. From 1978 to 1984, Romney was a vice president of Bain & Company, Inc., another Boston-based management consulting firm. In 1984, Romney left Bain & Company to co-found a Bain & Company spin-off private equity investment firm called Bain Capital. During the 14 years he headed the company, Bain Capital's average annual internal rate of return on realized investments was 113 percent, making money primarily through leveraged buyouts. He invested in or bought many well-known companies such as Staples, Brookstone, Domino's, Sealy Corporation and The Sports Authority.

In 1990, Romney was asked to return to Bain & Company, which was facing financial collapse. As CEO, Romney managed an effort to restructure the firm's employee stock-ownership plan, real-estate deals and bank loans, while increasing fiscal transparency. Within a year, he had led Bain & Company through a highly successful turnaround and returned the firm to profitability without layoffs or partner defections.

Romney left Bain Capital in 1998 to head the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games Organizing Committee.

He and his wife have a net worth of between 190 and 250 million USD.

CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee

Romney served as president and CEO of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games held in Salt Lake City. In 1999, the event was running $379 million short of its revenue benchmarks. Plans were being made to scale back the games in order to compensate for the fiscal crisis. The Games were also damaged by allegations of bribery involving top officials, including then Salt Lake Olympic Committee (SLOC) President and CEO Frank Joklik. Joklik and SLOC vice president Dave Johnson were forced to resign.

On February 11, 1999, Romney was hired as the new president and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. Romney revamped the organization's leadership and policies, reduced budgets and boosted fundraising. He also worked to ensure the safety of the Games following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 by coordinating a $300 million security budget. Despite the initial fiscal shortfall, the Games ended up clearing a profit of $100 million, not counting the $224.5 million in security costs contributed by outside sources.

Romney contributed $1 million to the Olympics, and donated the $825,000 salary he earned as President and CEO to charity. He wrote a book about his experience called Turnaround (ISBN 978-1-59698-514-8).

Massachusetts political campaigns

Campaign for United States Senate, 1994 election

In 1994, Romney won the Massachusetts Republican Party's nomination for U.S. Senate after defeating businessman John Lakian in the primary. Romney's mother had run for the Senate in 1970. Some early polls showed Romney close to the Senator Ted Kennedy. One Boston Herald/WCVB-TV poll taken after the September 20, 1994 primary showed Romney ahead 44 percent to 42 percent, within the poll's sampling margin of error. Kennedy, who typically faced only "token" GOP opposition for his senate seat was more vulnerable than usual in 1994, in part because of the unpopularity of the Democratic Congress as a whole and also because this was Kennedy's first election since the William Kennedy Smith trial in Florida, in which Ted Kennedy had taken some public relations hits regarding his character. President Bill Clinton traveled to Massachusetts to campaign for Kennedy.

After Romney touted his business credentials and his record at creating jobs within his company, Kennedy ran campaign ads showing an Indiana company bought out by Romney's firm, Bain Capital, and interviews with its union workers who had been fired and criticized Romney for the loss of their jobs, one saying, "I don’t think Romney is creating jobs because he took every one of them away." Although both Kennedy and Romney supported the abortion rights established under Roe v. Wade, Kennedy accused Romney of being "multiple choice" on the issue, rather than "pro choice" (a shot at what he stated were Romney's flip flops on the issue). According to figures in The Almanac of American Politics 1996, which relies on official campaign finance reports, Romney spent over $7 million of his own money, with Kennedy spending more than $10 million from his campaign fund, mostly in the last weeks of the campaign (this was the second-most expensive race of the 1994 election cycle, after the Dianne Feinstein vs. Michael Huffington Senate race in California). Kennedy won the election with 58 percent of the vote to Romney's 41 percent, the smallest margin in Kennedy's nine elections to the Senate through 2006.

Campaign for Governor, 2002 election

In 2002, Republican Lieutenant Governor Jane Swift was expected to campaign for the governor's office. Swift had served as acting governor after Republican Governor Paul Cellucci resigned upon being appointed U.S. Ambassador to Canada. Swift was viewed as an unpopular executive, and her administration was plagued by political missteps and personal scandals. Many Republicans viewed her as a liability and considered her unable to win a general election against a Democrat. Prominent GOP activists campaigned to persuade Romney to run for governor. One poll taken at this time showed that Republicans favored Romney over Swift by more than 50 percentage points. Swift decided not to seek her party's nomination.

Massachusetts Democratic Party officials claimed that Romney was ineligible to run for governor, citing residency issues. The Massachusetts Constitution requires seven consecutive years of residency prior to a run for office. Romney claimed residency in Utah from 1999 to 2002, during his time as president of the Salt Lake City Olympic Committee. In 1999 he listed himself as a part-time Massachusetts resident. The Massachusetts Democratic Party filed a complaint with the Massachusetts State Ballot Law Commission, which eventually ruled that Romney was eligible to run for office. The ruling was not challenged in court.

Supporters of Romney hailed his business record, especially his success with the 2002 Olympics, as that of one who would be able to bring in a new era of efficiency into Massachusetts politics. Romney contributed $6.3 million to his own campaign during the election, at the time a state record. Romney was elected Governor in November 2002 with 50 percent of the vote over Democratic candidate Shannon O'Brien, who received 45 percent.

Governor of Massachusetts, 2003–2007

Romney was sworn in as the 70th governor of Massachusetts on January 2, 2003. Upon entering office, Romney faced a projected $3 billion deficit, but a previously enacted $1.3 billion capital gains tax increase and $500 million in unanticipated federal grants decreased the deficit to $1.2 billion.

Through a combination of tax and fee increases and spending cuts the State had a $700 million surplus by 2006. Romney supported raising various fees by $500 million per year, including raising fees for driver's licenses, marriage licenses, and gun licenses. Romney increased the state gasoline tax by 2 cents per gallon, generating about $60 million per year in additional tax revenue. Romney approved another $181 million in additional business taxes in the next two years; businesses called these changes tax increases, but Romney defended them as the elimination of "loopholes."

The state legislature with Romney's support also cut spending by $1.6 billion, including $700 million in reductions in state aid to cities and towns, leading many towns to increase property taxes to make up for lost funding for schools and police. The cuts also included a $140 million reduction in state funding for higher education, which led state-run colleges and universities to increase tuition by 63%. Romney sought additional cuts in his last year as Massachusetts governor by vetoing nearly 250 items in the state budget. All of those vetoes were overturned by the legislature, effectively removing Romney from the final stage of the state's budget process.

According to an analysis by the Tax Foundation, the state and local tax burden in Massachusetts increased from 10 percent to 10.6 percent of per capita income during Romney's governorship.

On April 12, 2006, Romney signed the Massachusetts health reform law which mandates nearly all Massachusetts residents to buy health insurance coverage or else face a substantial penalty in the form of an additional income tax assessment. The bill also establishes means-tested state subsidies for people without adequate employer insurance and who make below an income threshold by using funds previously designated to compensate for the health costs of the uninsured. He vetoed 8 sections of the health care legislation, including an employer assessment and provisions providing health coverage to senior and disabled legal immigrants not eligible for federal Medicaid. The legislature overrode all eight vetoes. Romney's communications director Eric Fehrnstrom responded saying "These differences with the Legislature are not essential to the goal of getting everyone covered with insurance."

At the beginning of his governorship, Romney opposed same-sex marriage and civil unions while supporting domestic partnerships for same-sex couples. Faced with the dilemma of choosing between gay marriage or civil unions after the November 2003 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision legalizing same-sex marriages (Goodridge v. Department of Public Health), Romney reluctantly backed a state constitutional amendment in February 2004 that would have banned gay marriage but still allow civil unions, viewing it as the only feasible way to ban gay marriage in Massachusetts. In May 2004 Romney instructed town clerks to begin issuing marriage licenses to gay couples, but citing a 1913 law that barred out-of-state residents from getting married in Massachusetts if their union would be illegal in their home state, no marriage licenses were to be issued to out-of-state gay couples not planning to move to Massachusetts. In June 2005, Romney abandoned his support for the compromise amendment, stating that the amendment confused voters who oppose both gay marriage and civil unions. Instead, Romney endorsed a petition effort led by the Coalition for Marriage & Family that would have banned gay marriage and made no provisions for civil unions. In 2006 he urged the U.S. Senate to vote in favor of the Marriage Protection Amendment.

On December 14, 2005, Romney announced that he would not seek re-election for a second term as governor. Sinking approval ratings (70% of Massachusetts residents and 64% of Republicans) said that Romney had been doing a fair-to-poor job as governor.

Romney filed papers to establish a formal exploratory presidential campaign committee the next to last day in office as governor. Romney's term ended January 4, 2007.

Campaign for United States President, 2008 election

Template:Future election candidate

Since the 2004 Republican National Convention, Romney had been discussed as a potential 2008 presidential candidate. On January 3 2007, two days before he stepped down as governor of Massachusetts, Romney filed to form a presidential exploratory committee with the Federal Election Commission. On February 13, 2007 Romney formally announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president in 2008.

In August, 2007, Romney won the Ames Straw Poll with 31% of the vote. His closest rival in the Straw Poll, Mike Huckabee, received 18% of the total vote. Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, and the then-unofficial candidate Fred Thompson, did not attend. Romney also won the Illinois Straw Poll with 40.35% of the vote, with Fred Thompson coming in 2nd with 19.96% of the total vote.

Romney has been criticized for comparing his son's campaign work on his behalf to military service. Said Romney, "one of the ways my sons are showing support for our nation is helping to get me elected.” Neither Romney nor his five sons have served in the military. Romney later said he misspoke and that he does not consider campaign work as service to the country.

As of September 2007, state-by-state polls for the 2008 Republican nomination show that Romney has electoral support in the key early states of Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada, and is also polling well in Michigan (which may be a key early state), Utah and Idaho.

Political positions

Romney supports a pro-life platform. Though he has always been personally opposed to abortion, until a few years ago Romney was pro-choice. For example, he took a pledge in 1994 not to infringe upon abortion rights in Massachusetts. Romney said his original support of abortion was the result of his sister-in-law's death from an illegal abortion. In the 2002 Massachusetts gubernatorial campaign, he was endorsed by the Republicans for Choice coalition. In a March 15 2007 interview with Larry King, Romney explained that while governor he adapted his political position on abortion on November 9, 2004 when he met with an embryonic stem cell researcher and the idea of cloning human embryos for the purpose of harvesting stem cells was discussed.

Romney has been a life-long proponent of traditional marriage and has called for a U.S. Constitutional Amendment limiting marriage to one man and one woman. He opposed both same-sex marriage and civil unions in Massachusetts, but said he would support laws against hate crimes and discrimination against gays and to provide some partner benefits. When in 2003 the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ordered such marriages be permitted, he lobbied for a state constitutional amendment to overturn the decision. However, during his 1994 run for the senate against Kennedy, Romney sent a letter to the Log Cabin Republicans, where he said he would be more supportive of gay rights than Kennedy himself, and included the phrase "We must make equality for gays and lesbians a mainstream concern." Romney still supports many gay rights, despite his firm opposition to gay marriage.

Romney supported the invasion of Iraq, and supports the Iraq War troop surge of 2007, though he said it is still too early to gauge its success. Upon hearing the testimony of General Patraeus, Romney reemphasized his agreement with current policy in Iraq and has called for a "Surge of Support" for the military. Romney has called for increased military spending to at least 4% of the United States GDP and wishes to increase the size of the military by at least 100,000 troops. Romney's foreign policy emphasizes incident prevention through improved intelligence work and cooperation with friendly nations on a global scale to defeat radical jihad.

Romney has focused on tax relief for "middle income Americans" and has advocated eliminating the capital gains tax for all those who earn less than $200,000 per year. Romney has also advocated eliminating the inheritance tax, signed a pledge to oppose "any and all efforts" to increase income taxes, and promises to control spending by Congress.

Romney currently supports the death penalty, charter schools, and sentencing under the three strikes law. Romney opposes the use of torture during information extraction, but he has praised the executive branch for withholding certain constitutional rights from terrorist suspects (including certain American citizens, see Hamdi v. Rumsfeld) detained at Guantanamo Bay.

Electoral history

• 2002 Race for Governor, Massachusetts
  • Mitt Romney (R), 50%
  • Shannon O'Brien (D), 45%
  • Jill Stein (J), 3%
  • Carla Howell (L), 1%
  • Barbara Johnson (U), 1%
• 1994 Race for U.S. Senate, Massachusetts
  • Edward Kennedy (D) (incumbent), 58%
  • Mitt Romney (R), 41%
  • Lauraleigh Dozier (L), 0.7%
  • William Ferguson, 0.2%

See also

• Mitt Romney presidential campaign, 2008
• Political positions of Mitt Romney
• Governorship of Mitt Romney
• Presidents and Prophets: the Story of America's Presidents and the LDS Church

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External links

Official

• Mitt Romney's Supporters (French Blog)
• Romney Supporters on MySpace
• Mitt Romney for President 2008 Website
• Mitt Romney's Commonwealth PAC
• Official Mitt Romney MySpace Site
• Mitt TV
• Official Romney YouTube Site Campaign videos and advertisements.
• Official Romney for President community on Zigvid.com Campaign videos and exclusive interviews with Romney sons
• Official Mitt Romney supporters forum.

Speeches, multimedia and transcripts

• The Making of Mitt Romney Video from The Boston Globe
• Romney 2002 Gubernatorial debate
• C-Span Archives—Speeches in S.C., N.H., & Mich (RealPlayer required)
• MIT Keynote Address
• Healthcare Reform Speech at the Heritage Foundation video
• Governor Romney Speaks To Spartanburg SC Event

Interviews

• May 13, 2007 Mitt Romney Wants To Re-Tool Washington interview by Mike Wallace on 60 Minutes
• March 13, 2007 Mitt Romney on State of Campaign, Conservative Credentials Interview by Fox News's Sean Hannity
• December 28, 2006 Mitt Romney Discusses Iraq War, Reagan's Influence and Gay Marriage by Robert Bluey
• December 17, 2006 National Review Q&A with Mitt Romney
• June 5, 2006 Charlie Rose Interview Guest Host Judy Woodruff
• March 19, 2006 C-Span Q&A video and transcript

Databases and information

• Romney Facts voter information supplied by the Massachusetts Democratic Party.
• Press Releases while Governor of Massachusetts
• Federal Election Commission - Mitt Romney campaign finance reports and data
• Follow the Money - Mitt Romney campaign contributions
• NewsMeat - Campaign Contributions Made by Mitt Romney
• OpenSecrets.org - Mitt Romney campaign contributions
• Project Vote Smart voter information
• NewsHour with Jim Lehrer - Vote 2008: Mitt Romney
• New York Times - Mitt Romney news and commentary
• Template:Dmoz
• Genealogy of Mitt Romney

Media coverage

• The Republicans' Mr. Fix-it from CNNMoney.com
• The Making of Mitt Romney The Boston Globe, June 24, 2007 through July 1, 2007. A seven part series of articles with photo galleries.
• Mitt Romney's Top Ten Gaffe's (2007) from TIME.com
• "Romney Rides High" The Wall Street Journal, September 25 2006
• "Mitt Romney's Problem" The Economist, September 28 2006
• Mighty Mitt Romney The American Spectator, March 2006
• "Yepsen: So far, Romney's been most impressive Republican" Des Moines Register 11 July 2006
• "Is America ready for a Mormon president?" Reuters, 23 November 2006
• Mitt Romney's Evangelical Problem, The Washington Monthly, September, 2005
• "Activist rains on Romney's parade: Says the candidate is not conservative" The Boston Globe, 22 January 2007
• Hugh Hewitt, A Mormon in the White House?: 10 Things Every American Should Know about Mitt Romney, Regnery Press, 2007. ISBN 159698502X
• Ana Marie Cox, "Romney's Cruel Canine Vacation", Time, Jun. 27, 2007

v t e Governors of Massachusetts
Colony (1629–1686)	Endecott Winthrop T. Dudley Haynes Vane Winthrop T. Dudley Bellingham Winthrop Endecott T. Dudley Winthrop Endecott T. Dudley Endecott Bellingham Endecott Bellingham Leverett Bradstreet
Dominion (1686–1689)	J. Dudley Andros Bradstreet
Province (1692–1776)	W. Phips Stoughton Bellomont Stoughton Governor's Council J. Dudley Governor's Council J. Dudley Tailer Shute Dummer Burnet Dummer Tailer Belcher Shirley S. Phips Shirley S. Phips Governor's Council Pownall Hutchinson Bernard Hutchinson Gage
Commonwealth (since 1776)	Hancock Cushing Bowdoin Hancock Adams Sumner Gill Governor's Council Strong Sullivan Lincoln Sr. Gore Gerry Strong Brooks Eustis Morton Lincoln Jr. Davis Armstrong Everett Morton Davis Morton Briggs Boutwell Clifford E. Washburn Gardner Banks Andrew Bullock Claflin W. Washburn Talbot Gaston Rice Talbot Long Butler Robinson Ames Brackett Russell Greenhalge Wolcott Crane Bates Douglas Guild Draper Foss Walsh McCall Coolidge Cox Fuller Allen Ely Curley Hurley Saltonstall Tobin Bradford Dever Herter Furcolo Volpe Peabody Volpe Sargent Dukakis King Dukakis Weld Cellucci Swift Romney Patrick Baker Healey
Italics indicate acting officeholders

• 1947 births
• American Latter Day Saints
• Bishops of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
• Brigham Young University alumni
• Cranbrook alumni
• Governors of Massachusetts
• Harvard Law School alumni
• Harvard Business School alumni
• Latter Day Saint businesspeople
• Latter Day Saint politicians
• Living people
• Massachusetts Republicans
• Mormon missionaries
• People from Detroit
• People from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
• Mitt Romney
• Pratt–Romney family