Where's Romney?

The last time Massachusetts elected a Republican to a major statewide office was 2002, when an investment banker named Mitt Romney captured the statehouse. But now, on the eve of a potential upset by another Republican of the Senate seat held by the iconic liberal Ted Kennedy for 48 years, Romney is nowhere to be found.

There's a lot fueling the stunning prospect that Democratic Atty. Gen. Martha Coakley could lose to a little-known state senator from Wrentham named Scott Brown.

Tea Party activists, angry at ObamaCare and federal spending run amok -- are flooding the Bay State with money and ground troops. Check out RedInvadesBlue.com for details.

And Coakley has proved herself a tone-deaf candidate. She offended the entire Red Sox Nation by calling Curt Schilling a Yankees fan and scoffed at Brown for wanting to bring back the Bush-Cheney tax cuts. As a result, despite a last-minute personal appearance by President Obama, some are now calling Brown "The Great Right Hope."

But for all the attention focused on Massachusetts in the run-up to Tuesday's election, Romney is conspicuously absent. And as Politico pointed out, his MIA status could say a lot about his presidential aspirations.

“Mitt Romney is an unpopular former governor," said Jeffrey Berry, a Tufts University political scientist. "He hasn’t really been a part of Massachusetts political culture since he left office. I think people thought he ran for office merely to run for president.”

Early on, Romney hosted several fundraisers for Brown and sent an e-mail appeal for supporters to make calls. But lately, as Republican boldface names like former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Gov. William Weld have stumped for Brown, Romney has been on the sidelines.

Still, he has a prediction.  "Massachusetts is not as monolithic as people think," he said recently, noting the state voted for Ronald Reagan -- twice.

-- Johanna Neuman

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Comments

[Pam]

With the election of Brown, Romney is heading into win #3.
McDonnell and Christie being the other 2.

It doesn't matter that he is not appearing with Brown in these closing days. His fingerprints are all over Brown's campaign -- Romney helped launch Brown, was with him before he had any shot at all, and is a large factor in his successful campaign.

Palin: Zilch. She screwed up NY23.

[Jed Merrill]

I hate to say this, but this is very poor reporting.

Romney has been very involved, as noted here:

"Win or lose, Mitt Romney is getting some credit for Scott Brown’s big MO" http://bit.ly/8LRYfp #tcot #gop #teaparty #41stvote #MASen #tlot

The article notes that Romney has been involved long before Brown became a likely frontrunner, and his staff is essentially Brown's staff. Even their campaign slogan is just one word different--bold instead of strong new leadership.

Romney also has several appearances scheduled over the last week (at least two that I know of.)

Jeffrey Berry's statement that “Mitt Romney is an unpopular former governor" also ignores the truth. Romney was voted most popular politician in Massachusetts after Ted Kennedy just days before Kennedy died.

Perhaps you are quoting without research from Politico?

[Camron]

“Where’s Romney” Is the wrong question. The question should be: what has Romney done?

The answer: A tremendous amount to help Scott Brown. Romney’s PAC put its weight behind the Brown campaign months ago. Supporters of Romney have sent Scott Brown millions of dollars and lots of goodwill!

[Matt]

You want to know where Romney was? How about introducing Scott Brown for his victory speech last night!! Romney was a major supporter in the Brown win. If you did two seconds of research, you would know this.