Romney official defects to Huckabee in Michigan
Posted January 13, 2008
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Mitt Romney was born in the wealthy suburbs of Detroit, and his dad served as governor in Lansing. Romney launched his presidential campaign at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, and he has blanketed the airwaves with upbeat ads from Bay City to Kalamazoo.
Michigan was supposed to be an easy win for the multimillionaire venture capitalist, but after losing in Iowa and New Hampshire, Romney now faces the fight of his life.
“It’s a wide-open race,” says former Michigan Republican Party Chairman Larry P. Arnn.
Observers say Romney desperately needs to win Tuesday’s Republican primary to keep going.
“Most people would say he’s mortally wounded. He can’t continue” if Wolverine State voters abandon him, says Inside Michigan Politics editor Bill Ballenger. “His entire strategy will be in a shambles if he loses here.” Romney must knock off Arizona’s Sen. John McCain, who won the 2000 Michigan primary with his “Straight Talk Express.” He also faces a threat from former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, a social conservative and economic populist who has drawn massive crowds across the state.
Huckabee “has a popular economic message that will resonate in Michigan, and he’s got a solid core of support,” says Ballenger, a former Republican legislator and Ford administration official. “I think he could pull off a shocker.” In order to win, Huckabee will need solid support from evangelicals, who make up an estimated 25 percent to 30 percent of the Michigan electorate.
In Iowa, 46 percent of bornagain Christians backed Huckabee, according to entrance polls. But in New Hampshire, evangelical voters split almost evenly among Huckabee, McCain and Romney.
Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, made inroads among New England evangelicals despite his membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, exit polls showed.
Here in the Rust Belt, however, he had a defection Saturday.
The Michigan chairman of Romney’s faith-and-values committee jumped ship and joined the Huckabee team during a rally in Grand Rapids. Michigan state Rep. Fulton Sheen says he changed sides primarily because Romney opposes replacing the income tax with a national sales tax.
But Sheen, the great-nephew and namesake of a legendary Roman Catholic bishop, also suggested Huckabee has a steadfastness on social issues such as abortion and gay marriage that Romney lacks.
“Our country needs a leader whose ‘yes’ is yes and whose ‘no’ is no,” said Sheen, paraphrasing the words of Jesus. “We need a leader who knows what he believes and doesn’t buckle down under political pressure or have polls tell him what to think and say.” Asked for the name of an evangelical pastor who supports Romney, Sheen told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: “I’m sure there’s got to be some. I just haven’t come across them.”
BREAKFAST WITH HUCKABEE
Pro-Huckabee clergy, on the other hand, are plentiful.
More than 100 pastors attended a breakfast Huckabee sponsored Saturday in Grand Rapids.
The Rev. Keith Butler, pastor of Michigan’s largest black megachurch, summed up Huckabee’s appeal.
“He’s not someone that is well-loved by the powers that be, but people who hear him, hear his heart and find out that he is genuine, that he is authentic,” Butler told his fellow pastors. “He’s a man of God and a servant of the people and an effective chief executive.” This morning, churchgoers will be greeted by volunteers waving Huckabee campaign signs as they head for their houses of worship and will find Huckabee fliers on their windshields after services, says Gary Glenn, a leading Huckabee organizer here.
But the candidate insists his trade and tax policies, his stances on abortion and gay marriage, make him attractive to a wide array of Republican voters.
“The national press is trying to say that I’m sort of marginalized, and the only support I have is from evangelicals,” Huckabee told the Democrat-Gazette. “Sure, evangelicals support me, but not monolithically and not universally.” Those that do “know that I have a priority for the marriage amendment and a priority for the human-life amendment, that these are real issues to me, not just political ones.”
Huckabee won’t capture the evangelical vote without a fight.
“I have a 24-year-record of pro-life. I’ve never changed for any reason. And I’d put my record up against the others,” McCain told the Democrat-Gazette after a rally in Grand Rapids. “I’m confident we’ll do very well.”
Scott Greenway, pastor of Caledonia Christian Reformed Church, stood on the stage at the McCain event and applauded while the candidate vowed to battle terrorism and to boost Michigan’s economy. “McCain just seems like he has the experience, and he seems like he has the ability to bring the party together fiscally, military, socially,” Greenway said. “I can’t say I really trust [Romney ]. He seems phony to me. He flip-flops, especially when it comes to social issues such as abortion.”
ROMNEY HAS HIS FANS
Romney is also courting born-again Christians, with some success.
Fran Karnemaat, a retired missions worker from Grand Rapids, has already cast an absentee ballot for the former Salt Lake Olympics chief. At a Romney rally Wednesday in East Grand Rapids, Karnemaat quickly ticked off her candidate’s positive attributes: “Good resume. Fine experience. Great family man. Great values.” And it doesn’t hurt that he’s a Michigan native. “It’s good to favor our favorite son,” she said.
Before the rally, Romney declined to say how he’d fare among Michigan’s evangelical voters.
But Lori Wortz, a member of Romney’s faith-and-values committee, said in a telephone interview that she expects he’ll do well. “I think we consider him kind of our hometown guy, in a lot of ways. His dad was our governor. His family’s well known.” Plus, she said, he’s better prepared to lead America.
“I don’t think [Huckabee’s ] ready to be the leader.... I don’t think he rises to the level of a Mitt Romney,” Wortz said. “I think Mitt will be a stronger leader and a stronger executive.” Until a few days ago, Huckabee’s campaign was virtually invisible in Michigan — no ads, no office, no paid political staff. He relied on a grassroots network of anti-abortion activists, home-schoolers and other Christian conservatives to spread the word.
“It’s a 100 percent volunteer army,” said conservative activist Gary Glenn of Midland of the troops that were organizing Huckabee’s Michigan efforts.
Original plans called for Huckabee to focus on South Carolina once the New Hampshire primary was over. But sensing an opportunity in this Midwestern state, the candidate began shifting resources to Michigan. Huckabee’s national campaign chairman, Ed Rollins, isn’t promising victory. “I think we’re going to do all right,” he said Saturday. “We’re going to work real hard.” On Friday, Huckabee’s noontime speech to the Detroit Economic Club drew 500 Motown movers and shakers and captured most of the media coverage. But 1, 500 people showed up in Birch Run, north of Flint, for a rally at an ice-hockey arena. And 600 packed a gymnasium in St. Johns (population 7, 485 ) to cheer for him.
BIG SPENDER
So far, Romney has vastly outspent his rivals. “He’s everywhere. He’s on TV, radio, in our mailboxes, on the Internet,” says Stephen Anthony, chairman of Michigan Chooses Life and a Huckabee supporter. “Personally, I don’t turn on the TV or listen to the radio or go to my mailbox without there being something [from Romney ].... And I get a lot of telemarketing calls on him, too.” Romney rounded up endorsements from a host of Michigan politicians early on, before Huckabee had even entered the race.
Now, at least a few are wavering.
Oakland County Commissioner Mike Rogers, who has officially endorsed Romney, heard Huckabee speak at the Detroit Economic Club on Friday and said afterward that he is having second thoughts.
“I was really impressed,” Rogers said.
Was he having buyer’s remorse ?
“Absolutely. There’s no doubt about it.” The state’s two largest newspapers also have reservations about the native son. The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press have endorsed McCain. The state’s third-largest paper, the Grand Rapids Press, has sided with Romney. No major Michigan daily has embraced Huckabee.
Like Romney the past few days, Huckabee has told his audiences over and over about his own roots, which are much humbler than Romney’s, closing with a quotation from Isaiah.
“I still remember where I came from,” he told a gymnasium full of home-school families Friday night in St. Johns. “As the prophet said, look to the rock from which you were hewn and the quarry from which you were cut.”