Mitt Romney Sets Sights On Michigan

Second Place Finisher In Iowa And New Hampshire Hopes To Revive Campaign In Michigan

(CBS/AP)  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.

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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.

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.

[katg21]

flreason,

Granholm threatened a government shutdown(almost got it too) in turn holding the republicans in our state governments heads over the fire. Real leadership! She would consider NO alternatives to taxing! With all do respect, you don''t live here and you''re not suffering from the tax increases. I thought dems claimed to be for the middle class, if so then why tax the hell out of the middle class in Michigan? "Middle Class" means something totally different to the Dems. Small businesses are closing up shop left and right here thanks to the hike. How is that good for Michigan?

[katg21]

Michigan, the ONLY state in the country going through a recession and the Dem candidates choose to ignore it. What does that say about the dem party? Speaking as a Michigander... NOT MUCH! Don''t be surprised if the Republicans win the state by a land slide.

[merlgrey]

Posted by perception5 at 05:03 PM : "Mitt Romney knows how to create weatlh."

"While in private business, Mitt Romney utilized shell companies in two offshore tax havens to help eligible investors avoid paying U.S. taxes, federal and state records show.
Romney gained no personal tax benefit from the legal operations in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. But aides to the Republican presidential hopeful and former colleagues acknowledged that the tax-friendly jurisdictions helped attract billions of additional investment dollars to Romney''s former company, Bain Capital, and thus boosted profits for Romney and his partners."

[merlgrey]

Posted by perception5 at 05:03 PM : "Mitt Romney knows how to create weatlh."

"Mr. Romney%u2019s Bain career %u2014 a source of money and contacts that he has used to finance his Massachusetts campaigns and to leap ahead of his presidential rivals in early fund-raising %u2014 also exposes him to criticism that he enriched himself excessively, sometimes by cutting jobs to increase profits.
He made his money mainly through leveraged buyouts %u2014 essentially, mortgaging companies to take them over in the hope of reselling them at big profits in just a few years. It is a bare-knuckle form of investing that is in the spotlight because of the exploding profits of buyout giants like Bain, Blackstone and the Carlyle Group. In Washington, Congress is considering ending a legal quirk that lets fund managers escape much of the income tax on their earnings.
%u201CThe amounts of money are so vast that it is truly a matter of time before the taxation of private equity is front and center of the public agenda,%u201D said James E. Post, a Boston University professor who teaches business-government relations. %u201CIncreasingly, this world of private equity looks like a world of robber barons, and Romney comes out of that world.%u201D"

[flreason]

katg21:

The Governor cannot institute new taxes. That authority rests with the legislature. The Governor can propose a tax plan, but it has to be introduced by a legislator. The governor also has the power to veto legislation, which the legislature can override if they have the votes. In addition, the governor sets policy and controls the state agency budgets.

Even the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a conservative Michigan think tank, gave Granholm good marks for her fiscal policies her first term. In the 2006 election, the media political pundits agreed that the state''s woes were because of the decline of the auto companies and the businesses that depended on them rather than Granholm''s policies.

In 2006, Democrats took control of the House, the first time they had a majority in either house for 10 years.

[moxford0]

Romney reminds me of a morning poop.Slimey and glad to get rid of.

[ekucrew]

I spent many summers traveling north to MI to visit relatives and saw first hand what the people are like, especially in the southern region of the state where auto used to be king....this state needs some jobs. The workers are there, just not enough opportunities.

One glaringly fact stands out about the people.... they cannot be schmoozed or courted by fake politicians. No fluff, just straight talk. Any prez candidate visiting MI better be on their game that day. I''d like to see how many candiates will actually go into the U.P. for a campaign stop.

[octavianfdlr]

"Like the big car companies in his native state of Michigan, Mitt Romney could use a rebound. "

"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. "

-CBS/AP

What about John McCain and Mike Huckabee, who have lost even worse to each other and to Mitt Romney?

The current pledged delegate counts for the three are:
Mitt Romney: 30
Mike Huckabee: 21
John McCain: 10

Isn''t it funny that CBS is painting the front runner as trailing behind second and third?

Do you believe anything that CBS publishes?

[cfin5]

I''m for Ron Paul for sure. But if I had to choose between Romney and McCain, it would be for Romney hands down. McCain has a TERRIBLE 2nd. Amendment record and an incremental victory against the 1st......we supposed to forget that or something? Apparently New Hampshire has a bit too much for me. However, if Ron loses the nod, I''m not voting for any CFR party candidate. Gonna sit this one out I guess.

[katg21]

thowardone,

I feel the same as you.

[katg21]

Granholm didn''''t create the recession, she inherited a state in decline from former Republican Governor John Engler. Posted by flreason

For some reason my response was removed from the comments page. I''ll say it again...BULLSHIIT! All of you dems say the same thing about her inheriting a recession and it''s ***. I moved here right before she took office and everything was booming; housing market, small/big business, etc.. Now, her most recent plan is to tax small business and she got her way. You tell me what taxing small business is going to do for this state? Granholm is a puppet for the unions and nothing else.

[thowardone]

Until now I''ve been a Guliani supporter, but I''ve been impressed lately by Romney''s endurance and consistency. He seems to be the only common denominator in every contest so far. For me he is a bit hard to connect with emmotionally, but I''m starting to see why. He is very strategical. Harvard grad, business wizz... he''s a genius executive. Most good executives are tough nuts to crack emotionally. It kind of makes sense, and in fact may be a desirable trait in a president. But looking back, Romney has actually been pretty likeable, even personally. I''ve started watching the debates and more of his news coverage. He''s a pretty impressive speaker, very tactful and intelligent. So, I think I''m giving him another look and just might end up voting for him here in Michigan. We''ll see how it goes...

[denn034]

Romney will probably succeed in reviving his campaign there.

[flreason]

Granholm didn''t create the recession, she inherited a state in decline from former Republican Governor John Engler. The DeVos-supported Republicans have controlled the Michigan legislature for a generation. You can see how effective they''ve been at creating jobs and wealth in the state. The politicians have voted themselves salary increases and tax breaks for their big business friends--who have shown their appreciation by moving their factories and jobs to Mexico or China, leaving the Michigan economy in shambles. If the Michigan tax system is a disaster, Michigan Republicans have no one to blame but themselves.

[katg21]

I am an undecided Michigan voter, leaning republican and am open to Mitt Romney. This state is failing because the dems are running things here. If Mitt doesn''t win the presidency I would BEG him to run for governor next go around.

[katg21]

As a former Michigander with family still there, I hope Michigan voters defy the DeVos stanglehold on Michigan Republican politics and deflate Romney''''s oversize ego.
Posted by flreason

I live in Michigan NOW and believe me people if DeVos would have won governor, we wouldn''t be in the mess we are in now. You want to know what our country would be like with Hillary behind the wheel, look at Michigan. Jennifer Grandholm models herself after Clinton. We are in a one state recession and it really sucks.

[heartlandjim]

Mike Huckabee has the real momentum now. He''s ahead in the national polls, tied in Mich. and double digits ahead in South Carolina. And he has the best plan to turn this country around. I like him, I support him and when he comes to South Carolina I''m going to campaign for him!

[flreason]

Mitt may originally be from Michigan, but he''s been gone a long time--without caring a whit about his "home" state. He is also connected to the DeVos family, of Amway fame--the biggest pyramid and snake oil scheme ever sanctioned by politicians. If he thinks empty promises (one state recession over) and his family connections will win him the state, he''s delusional. Unless he''s going to distribute his entire fortune to state residents, there is no way he can guarantee an improved Michigan economy. He''s probably planning to sign them up to sell Amway. That will give them a job just long enough for him to declare his plan a success.

As a former Michigander with family still there, I hope Michigan voters defy the DeVos stanglehold on Michigan Republican politics and deflate Romney''s oversize ego.

[mcv57]

Place on your ballot: Bozo the Clown, at least he will make you laugh on the way down.

[prinzowhales]

Setting his sites on Michigan and ignoring the voter fraud in New Hampshire...Run, Mitt, Run!!

http://www.democracyfornewhampshire.com/node/view/5307

This is what an Establishment hack would do...And while he is busy ignoring the subversion of democracy in America, nine more US servicemen have died in a war based on lies, lies and more lies that he supports! Run, Mitt, Run! See Mitt Run...See our soldiers die! See our wounded suffer! See the Treasury emptied! Run, Mitt, Run!!