Mitt Romney Sets Sights On Michigan
Like the big car companies in his native state of Michigan, Mitt Romney could use a rebound.
He's hoping to tap into the economic unease here to help revive his presidential chances in next Tuesday's primary. In return, Michigan is hoping to make sure he'd be a friend in the White House.
Additionally as he prepares to concentrate on Michigan, Romney is presently not airing ads in Florida and South Carolina, two key upcoming primary states, reports CBS News political consultant Marc Ambinder. (Read more in Horserace)
Early in the campaign, Romney looked almost as strong as the U.S. car companies in the 1960s, flushed with cash, blessed with good looks and know-how.
But after coming in second in Iowa and New Hampshire, Romney returned to Michigan Wednesday badly needing a win to counter his losses to John McCain and Mike Huckabee. He won the Wyoming caucuses last weekend, but that lightly contested race didn't seem to help him in New Hampshire, where he came in 6 percentage points behind McCain.
Michigan is not New Hampshire. It's an industrialized state struggling with high unemployment, shrinking tax revenue and a domestic auto industry that has shed hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Many Michigan voters fear their middle-class lifestyles will be lost as they watch foreign companies threaten to take over the No. 1 spot held by General Motors Corp. The war in Iraq is important, too, but they're focused on the economy - jobs and health care.
GM, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC all are working hard to make comebacks, and Romney pledged on Wednesday to help them succeed.
Just before flying to Michigan - where he was born and his father served as governor for six years - Romney recalled jobs he held at the edges of the auto industry and declared, "It's an industry I know well, and I recognize that when Michigan is hurting, it is a precursor of what could happen to the country. ... For me, Michigan is a state that has to do well."
"I'll make a commitment," he said before flying to Michigan from Boston. "If I'm president, that one-state recession is over."
Polls show Romney and Huckabee, the former governors of Massachusetts and Arkansas respectively, fighting for the lead in Michigan, and McCain is sure to get a boost from his New Hampshire victory that could make it a three-way contest.
Rudy Giuliani has dropped significantly in polls here, and he has no Michigan campaign appearances scheduled for the week ahead.
Michigan GOP Chairman Saul Anuzis said Republican candidates will have to concentrate on state issues if they want to win the White House.
"Michigan, with its ... higher-than-average unemployment and recent population losses, faces unique economic challenges the next president must help address," Anuzis said. "Making sure the Republican contenders spend time in Michigan getting to know its people and issues will make sure we have a friend in the White House next January."
Romney has run more television ads in the state than McCain and has raised nearly twice as much money through late October, $1.9 million to McCain's $899,308.
On Wednesday, Huckabee began running an ad focused on lost manufacturing jobs. "I believe most Americans want their next president to remind them of the guy they work with, not the guy who laid them off," he says in the ad, a subtle dig at Romney, a venture capitalist. The conservative Club for Growth began running ads against Huckabee because of dissatisfaction with his gubernatorial record on taxes and spending.
On the Democratic side, the steam went out of the Michigan primary a long time ago. The closest thing to excitement is the effort by supporters of Barack Obama, John Edwards and Bill Richardson to muddle a certain Hillary Rodham Clinton victory.
Michigan has been stripped of its 156 national convention delegates by the Democratic National Committee's Rules Committee because it broke party rules by moving up its primary to Jan. 15, challenging Iowa and New Hampshire on the nomination calendar. All of the Democratic candidates except Dennis Kucinich are sticking to pledges not to campaign or run ads in Michigan.
Some of the leaders of the Democratic Party in the state are trying to boost enthusiasm about the primary anyway. Sen. Carl Levin and Michigan Democratic Party chairman Mark Brewer said Wednesday that voters should participate in the Democratic primary because it's an important step toward "breaking the stranglehold" that Iowa and New Hampshire have in the selection of presidential candidates.
"We're early in the mix," Levin said. "We have decided it's important other states besides Iowa and New Hampshire have a say in the process."
But several months ago, Obama, Edwards and Richardson took the extra step of withdrawing their names from the ballot. Some backers of the three - including the United Steelworkers, which backs Edwards - are urging supporters to vote for "uncommitted" as a way of embarrassing Clinton and possibly gaining some national convention delegates.
But it's hard to tell how many will do that rather than staying home or voting in the GOP primary, where McCain could again draw some of the Democrats and independents who helped propel him to a Michigan victory in 2000.
Michigan has only 30 of its Republican National Convention delegates rather than its usual 60 - it lost half of them after moving the primary up. But a win here is about far more than the number of delegates at stake.
Romney has been trying to exploit his Michigan roots and his ties to the U.S. auto industry since he officially kicked off his campaign here last February. His father, George Romney, ran American Motors Corp. before becoming governor.
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This week, Romney's campaign tried to paint McCain as a candidate who would further injure the domestic auto industry with his calls for higher fuel efficiency standards for cars, SUVs and trucks.
But McCain probably can appeal to the same pool of voters who gave him a win in Michigan's 2000 primary and are unlikely to go for Romney: independents and Democrats who admire his record as a Vietnam pilot and prisoner of war and respond to his fiscal conservatism. McCain also is likely to do better among GOP voters than he did here in 2000, when George W. Bush was the establishment favorite.
Huckabee has no formal campaign organization in Michigan so far, but plans to beef up his efforts and could do well among Michigan's evangelical and conservative Christians. He speaks Friday to the Detroit Economic Club and plans a series of news conferences around the state.
Giuliani may not finish in the top three, but he could still pick up votes from moderate Republicans and those who like his record as New York mayor.
Ron Paul's campaign has opened up offices in several cities, including Detroit and Flint, and has named coordinators for the upper and lower peninsulas. Fred Thompson has not focused on Michigan in his campaign. Neither is expected to be a big factor in the primary.