Mitt Romney’s challenge: Convincing GOP he can win
Mitt Romney’s challenge: Convincing GOP he can win
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Romney’s likability gap extends to some members of his own party. | AP Photo
Mitt Romney speaks on the campaign trail. | AP Photo
By JONATHAN MARTIN | 4/20/12 4:37 AM EDT Politico
Poll after poll indicates the presidential campaign is a dead heat, but you wouldn’t know it from talking to many Republican professionals. If you gave them truth serum, they would tell you they think Mitt Romney will lose.
Romney’s likability gap, it turns out, extends to some members of his own party.
use race taking place right now. In the public eye, Romney is consolidating the GOP behind his candidacy. Most all the holdouts – including House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell – are getting behind the presumptive nominee and making the case for his candidacy.
But under the table, there is pervasive pessimism among Republicans about Romney’s prospects this fall. It’s apparent in rampant discussions about which Republicans will run in 2016 - talk that obviously presupposes a loss in November - and it’s downright glaring in private conversations with GOP officials on Capitol Hill and in consulting shops across Washington.
And the skepticism about Romney isn’t just a Beltway phenomenon. Rank-and-file Republican voters are also uncertain he can win, though it’s the chattering class that is most bearish.
The bed wetters, as White House adviser David Plouffe would call them, may ultimately be proven wrong or change their tune altogether. Polling patterns have a remarkable way of altering the conventional wisdom among insiders and Romney is enjoying some success on that front in recent days.
But he recognizes the danger posed by the downcast assessments of his candidacy and is taking steps to reach out to Republican opinion shapers and activists. Among his first tasks as nominee-in-waiting is to convince members of his own party that he can win.
Some of that strategy is playing out in a very public way. There’s a reason why, even after he’s locked up the nomination, the former Massachusetts governor is still doing talk radio appearances on the Breitbart network and Laura Ingraham show as well as appearing on Fox News, where he has teed up endorsements from big name Republicans. It’s the same reason why Romney is making an appearance at the RNC state chairs meeting later this week in Arizona and giving the commencement speech to the evangelical Liberty University next month.
Behind the scenes, Romney and his campaign are just as engaged in shoring up support from Republicans. Some of the outreach is done by the candidate himself. Romney, for example, phoned Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels to secure the Hoosier’s endorsement. And he met with a small group of conservative elites, including Ed Meese and David Keene, when he was in Washington for a speech earlier this month.
Much of the stroking, though, is being done by Romney’s advisers, who have divided up responsibilities. His point man with movement conservatives, Peter Flaherty, called evangelical leaders Tony Perkins and Gary Bauer within hours of Rick Santorum’s withdrawal from the race last week.
Ed Gillespie, the former RNC chairman who has become a senior adviser, has spent considerable time on the phone during his first weeks aboard the campaign as well as sitting down with a mix of establishment and conservative Republicans who were lukewarm about Romney.
Former Minnesota Gov Tim Pawlenty, a frequent Romney surrogate, has been helping to bring the GOP governors in line.
Romney’s top policy hand, Lanhee Chen, has held two conference calls in just in the past month with congressional policy aides, including the top issues staffers for Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
Zac Moffatt, Romney’s digital director, has been wooing conservative bloggers.
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