Iowans Taking Another Look at Mitt Romney

By Hannah Hess
Iowapolitics.com

Though he did not support former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in his 2008 bid for the Republican nomination, Dubuque resident Jeff Weber is prepared to give Romney a chance for 2012.

After tuning in for the Republican debates this cycle, Weber, a 42-year-old car dealership vice president and general manager, and his wife, Jodi, said they still felt very unsure about their caucus votes. They decided to come to Romney's noon-hour visit to Giese Manufacturing to vet him in person.

Asked if Romney's message was sounding better this time around, Weber at first declined to answer, then disclosed: "To be very honest, I don't necessarily think it's what he has going for him. It's just the field of candidates is a little bit different than it was in 2008."

Romney placed second in the caucuses that year, after spending millions here and committing to an intense ground game. GOP voters rallied behind former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, taking issue with Romney's past support for abortion rights and Massachusetts' universal health care law.

This year, social conservatives flirted with Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, Texas Gov. Rick Perry and, most recently, former Godfather's Pizza CEO Herman Cain, who runs neck-and-neck with Romney in many polls.

But, they have yet to coalesce around a single "anti-Romney candidate," said Republican National Committeeman Steve Scheffler, president of the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, formerly Iowa Christian Alliance.

So the Webers, and other Republicans, may be accepting Romney as the inevitable nominee.

In a nationwide Gallup poll of GOP voters released this week, 45 percent predicted Romney would be the eventual nominee, compared to a combined 35 percent for all other candidates. The poll of 1,054 Republicans and Republican-leaning independents was conducted Nov. 2-6. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Still, only 21 percent of those polled said he was their first choice for the ticket -- a figure consistent with most Iowa polling.

"Romney's the frontrunner," said Republican activist Mark Lundberg, GOP chairman of Sioux County. "But, I don't know who's the person that's going to end up being the one to kind of go head-to-head with him in the cycle. I don't know who that's going to be, and I can't predict that yet."

Lundberg said recently that Cain and former Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum both appeared to have strong support in the most Republican of Iowa's 99 counties, along with Romney.

If Romney does pull out a win on Jan. 3, conservative activist Rick Halvorsen, chairman of the Warren County Republicans, predicts he will not have boots on the ground supporting his general election campaign in Iowa.

"To us, Mitt Romney is another John McCain," Halvorsen said, referring to the Arizona Senator that won the Republican nomination in 2008. "Hardcore conservatives didn't work very hard for John McCain last time around, because they weren't happy with him as a candidate. He was the centrist Republicans' candidate, and he was the press candidate."

McCain opposed amending the Constitution to prohibit same-sex marriage, and was praised as a 'moderate' by former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat.

Halvorsen accused Romney of flip-flopping on social issues, the same criticisms that toppled his 2008 campaign, and said, "conservatives see through that."

But, Romney's Iowa steering committee Chairman Brian Kennedy said being branded as a moderate means he is actually the candidate "best positioned to beat" President Barack Obama.

The Webers, and other Republican voters, may be giving Romney a second look not because his message has changed, but because the issues have, Kennedy suggested.

"The issues are what is his sweet spot -- the economy, jobs, how we get this country moving again," he said. "That's what Mitt Romney's credentials are all about."

Democrats oppose this characterization, saying his social and economic proposals are anything but moderate.

"He would return American families to the failed economic policies that contributed to the years of rising inequality, stagnant wages, and eroding middle-class security," said James Kvaal, policy director of Obama for America.

Kvaal said deep spending cuts proposed by Romney, combined with regressive tax plans would shift a greater burden onto middle-income taxpayers.