Massachusetts '06: Is MITT ROMNEY Even Running for Reelection?

[liberalpragmatist]

Neither Paul Celucci nor Bill Weld stuck around. Weld ran for reelection then immediately turned around and challenged Kerry. Celucci ran for a full term then left halfway through to take an appointment as ambassador.

Especially considering that Romney wants to run for President and doesn't have a whole lot of support in Massachusetts, will he even run? Losing would kill his presidential chances. Plus he's been tacking quite right on social issues the last few months to appeal to social conservatives around the country. Obviously he's hurting himself with that.

I'm sure his attacks on Kerry during the campaign also probably hurt his position.

Even allowing for the fact that he's pretty socially conservative for a Massachusettes Republican is he conservative enough to actually win a Republican primary?

[whistle]

1. Mitt Romney needs to take his sad ass back to Utah...

...what is a bigoted right wing thug like that doing as governor of a cultured state like Massachusetts anyway? He like a King Herod in the seat of Roman power when the Lord Jesus was born and is equally dangerous.

[Deaniac20]

2. I doubt it

I doubt he'll run because he'd lose. His Kerry attacks and Kennedy attacks in such polarizing times will not help him. And Massachusetts needs a Democratic governor. We cannot win presidential elections if we can't win our home turf. Massachussets is our stronger state with 62 percent. We NEED to bring it up to 70. If the GOP can have states that high, so should we.

[beyurslf]

3. I always find it strange that KS and OK have Dem Govs and NY, CA, and MA

have Repub's

[leyton]

5. 'Tis a strange world.

I live in NC - solid red, really - and yet Democrats regularly win landslides in gubernatorial races. (Though we're losing our edge for the state council.) I think it's unfortunate that we lost the governorships in New York and California - the leaders of those states would make great Presidential candidates because of the fundraising base that they would already have and because of the perception (right or wrong) that anyone who can run a large state can run the country.

[newyawker99]

4. Hi Deaniac20!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[BlueManDude]

6. Yes - he has to

All this talk about him not running is ridiculous. How can he run for prez having served 4 years in Mass? If he wins in 06 he can say "see I was elected twice in liberal Mass - I'm a man of all the people." The gamble of course is that if he loses he's done forever.

He's still a heavy fave for re-election (despite what the polls say).

He will run - he has no choice.

[Lexingtonian]

7. no, he isn't

For one thing, 49.5% is not exactly an impressive victory in '02. He has little or nothing to show for two plus years in office and he's not going to get much of anything, and he knows it. Okay, he has replaced a pile of crappy Democrats in patronage positions with Republicans slightly younger and more crappy. He has also pissed off the Bill Weld portion of his party, which was inevitable.

Kerry Healy has been gussied up to run in '06. She's still fairly shallow- but nicer- and pointless to elect, a kind of lesser (if such a thing is possible) Christine Todd Whitman figure. The hope is evidently that she contrasts well with Tom O'Reilly/Bill Galvin and can win liberal voters who abhor the Old Guard conservative Democrats.

There's nothing for Romney to do in Massachusetts. The Legislature controls the budget, there is no meaningful Republican talent on the bench for any tier of Massachusetts politics, there's nothing he can do about gay marriage legalization- the '1913 law' will probably be overturned or repealed in a year or two or three, and that exposes the federal DoMA fatally (though some other state(s) may legalize in the meantime without such a restriction, and expose DoMA too).

So he's running for Pres. Not that he's some kind of wonderful candidate, but he's the best alternative they have to Jeb "my kids are on drugs and Florida Is Corruption" Bush and Rudi "have I told you about my mistress and that I'm Skeletor on Cialis?" Giuliani.

[woosh]

8. I don't see Pitaki running either.

I think there will be quite a backlash in Blue states and no Rep. Gov with bigger aspirations will stick around to get smoked.