Many Valley Republican activists still shopping for a presidential star
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When Mitt Romney was elected Massachusetts governor in 2002, local Republicans turned out in droves to campaign enthusiastically for him, collecting signatures, making phone calls and waving signs on street corners.
But this year, with Romney battling to win the GOP presidential nomination, western Massachusetts Republicans are staying off the campaign trail in large numbers, their ardor for Romney considerably dimmed. Some aren't even sure their former governor has their vote.
"If I could get the excitement back I would," said Jeanne Traester, an Amherst Republican who served as Romney's western Massachusetts campaign coordinator in 2002.
Chris Casale, a former longtime chairman of the Northampton Republican City Committee, backed Romney in his failed 1994 Senate bid and again in 2002 for governor.
But this year he is undecided, as are many of the other Republicans he knows. Casale said he is wavering between Romney and Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House who has catapulted toward the front of the race in recent weeks. Combine the two, Casale figures, and you would have the "perfect candidate."
John Andrulis of Northampton, the Republican state committeeman for Franklin and Hampshire counties, said he's backing Romney because he believes the former venture capitalist is the best qualified to jump-start the country's lagging economy.
"I think he is the best of the lot by far," Andrulis said.
That's hardly a ringing endorsement.
In many respects, western Massachusetts Republicans reflect GOP voters at large. In a pair of separate polls released last week, Republicans expressed unease with their party's presidential candidates.
Nearly four in 10 Republicans said they were dissatisfied with the candidates, according to an ABC/Washington Post poll. Meanwhile, a CBS News poll reported that almost eight in 10 Republicans said they had yet to make up their minds on a candidate.
Legislators back Romney
Romney is not completely lacking in Bay State support. The state Republican establishment plans to campaign on his behalf in New Hampshire, said state Sen. Michael Knapik, R-Westfield.
He noted that 39 of 40 GOP state legislators in Massachusetts are backing Romney, including himself.
Andrulis said he plans to campaign for Romney closer to the Massachusetts presidential primary on March 6.
But the lack of enthusiasm for Romney among local rank-and-file Republicans is striking, particularly among those who backed his successful 2002 gubernatorial campaign and his failed 1994 campaign against then-U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy.
Few western Massachusetts Republicans are making the short drive north to New Hampshire - home of the first-in-the-nation primary on Jan. 10 and a state viewed as critical to Romney's candidacy - to campaign. Casale said there has been little activity by area Republicans in the Granite State.
"At this point none of the people I know have been to New Hampshire," Casale said.
Traester also has no plans to head to New Hampshire to knock on doors, as she did for George W. Bush in 2000, for Romney or any other candidate.
She said she is weary of the same old politicians running for president, and wants someone new. Former Utah governor Jon Huntsman excites her, but his campaign has struggled to catch fire.
As for the man for whom she once campaigned so enthusiastically, Traester said only, "It's just the same old thing."
Traester is not alone in that regard.
"The only candidate I know that local people are supporting up in New Hampshire is (Ron) Paul," said Bill Gunn of Ware, a tea party Republican who unsuccessfully challenged Democratic Congressman John Olver of Amherst in 2010.
Gunn said he remains undecided in the race, his loyalties split between Paul and Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
"I hear some people talking about (Minnesota Congresswoman) Michele Bachmann," Gunn said. "Anything they say about Mitt Romney is negative."
Fall from grace
There was once a time when Romney was viewed as the savior of the state GOP, according to Traester, among his most ardent supporters in 2002 when he ran for governor
When Jane Swift, the acting Republican governor at the time, appeared unable to win a full term, Traester said she turned to Romney, who seemed like the right man for the job after a triumphant stint leading the organization that produced the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City,
"We wanted him to come back from Salt Lake because we wanted him to save the party," she said. "And he did."
An Amherst resident who works in medical sales, she joined the "enlist Mitt" movement early on, collecting signatures to place his name on the ballot. She ultimately collected so many that she was hired as a paid staffer and named Romney's western Massachusetts campaign coordinator.
"It sounds corny to say, but for Republicans he was our knight on the white horse," Traester said.
On election night, she was standing in Romney's campaign headquarters in Cambridge when he defeated Shannon O'Brien to become the 70th governor of Massachusetts. When the news came that O'Brien, an Easthampton native, had conceded, "Everyone screamed," Traester recalled.
"It is definitely a top-10 work memory for me," she said.
But her enthusiasm for Romney began to wane over his time as the commonwealth's chief executive.
"His first couple years we were very hopeful and then it became apparent that he had his eye on a grander scale, which is fine. We all feel a calling to do something," Traester said. "It just seemed a little disappointing."
Rich Howell, a Wilbraham resident and founder of the Pioneer Valley Tea Party, volunteered for Romney in 1994.
"We were getting more people (in 1994) than I had ever seen until the tea party," Howell said, recalling Romney's Senate campaign. "Then in that first debate he basically agreed with half of what Ted Kennedy stood for. That is not creating a contrast ... He ends up getting beaten pretty bad in November.
"Mitt Romney governed a lot like a progressive," Howell continued, noting how Romney championed the state's universal health care law as governor. "In the last year of his governorship he started making this transition, which in our opinion was done deliberately."
Casale, another of Romney's 1994 volunteers, recalled a debate that year in which Romney said he personally opposed abortion, but supported Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion.
"That was an issue where you assumed he would be pro-life," Casale said. And while the Northampton Republican said he still backed Romney, figuring he shared his views on most issues, he was nonetheless disappointed in the candidate's stance.
Asked if he trusted Romney today, Casale said the former governor has the right to grow and change his positions over time. But he added, "It's like Ronald Reagan said, you trust but verify because he's a politician."
What polls say
Indeed, earning voters' trust remains one of the biggest obstacles for Romney to winning the Republican nomination. The same ABC/Washington Post poll that found widespread dissatisfaction in the GOP ranks also found that just 16 percent of Republican voters felt they could rely on Romney a "great deal" to voice his actual opinion. Another 35 percent said they trusted Romney a "good amount" to say what he really thinks.
By comparison, 21 percent of Republicans said they could rely on Gingrich a "great deal" to say what he believes; another 31 percent said they trusted him a "good amount."
Paul scored the highest among Republicans by those measures, with 40 percent trusting him a "great deal" and another 24 percent "a good amount."
Andrulis, who also serves as the current head of the Northampton Republican City Committee, said he understands why many conservatives do not trust Romney. In 1994, he didn't vote for the then-Senate candidate at the Republican state convention because of his stance on abortion. He ultimately backed Romney in the general election against Kennedy.
"I talked to him and he said he was pro-choice and I said that sounds more like a Democrat than a Republican to me," Andrulis said. Speaking of those disillusioned by Romney, he said, "I can see their perspective because he has not had the most conservative track record."
Establishment support
Knapik said his support for Romney stemmed mainly from the job he did as governor, and he credited him with helping to turn around the state's economy early in the last decade. Romney streamlined government while making strategic investments across the state, including in the MassMutual Center in Springfield, Barnes Air National Guard Base in Westfield and Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee, Knapik said.
"He was a friend to the taxpayers through that process," Knapik said. "He really reined in spending, really pushed reform."
And he defended Romney's push for health-care reform, saying that it made sense at the time for Massachusetts, which is a wealthy state where some 90 percent of the population already had health insurance before the law was passed.
"I think he's done a good job in explaining why it was right for Massachusetts, but is too much of a task for the federal government, especially at a time when the economy is bad," Knapik said.
Traester said she would likely campaign for Romney if he ultimately wins the Republican nomination, but she plans to make a decision about a candidate after seeing how the results play out as the caucuses and primary elections begin next week.
But she's sorry to have lost the excitement of 2002.
"I wish I was really passionate about someone," Traester said. "I am just really not that excited to start helping."
Ben Storrow can be reached at bstorrow@gazettenet.com. Follow him on Twitter at @bstorrow.
