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Published: 2/17/2012 - Updated: 3 months ago

GOP RIVALS BATTLE FOR MICHIGAN

Romney endorsed by Gov. Snyder

BY TOM TROY
BLADE POLITICS WRITER

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FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. -- Mitt Romney sought to galvanize his own campaign for the Republican presidential nomination Thursday during a day that started in a Monroe steel-galvanizing plant and continued to Oakland County, where he collected the endorsement of Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder.

He then moved south into Ohio, where he spoke Thursday night during the Cuyahoga County Republican Party's Lincoln Day dinner at the Landerhaven Catering hall in Mayfield Heights, Ohio.

In his 35-minute address before the dinner, Mr. Romney said the nation needs an individual with experience in private business and took a swipe at President Obama, claiming that his role as editor of the Harvard Law Review was his chief experience before running for office.

"To create jobs, you have to have had a job," he said, referring to Mr. Obama's lack of experience in private business.

The Detroit-born Mr. Romney, earlier in the day in Monroe, toured National Galvanizing LP, where 8-ton coils of galvanized steel sat waiting to be shipped out for automotive and other manufacturing uses. Later at the Greater Farmington Chamber of Commerce in Oakland County, he reached out to business owners, saying he has the private-sector background to understand their concerns.

"Some government people don't like you very much," he said. "I love you."

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Rips incentives

Both in Farmington Hills and later during his Ohio appearance, Mr. Romney criticized the use of taxpayer money to pick winners and losers, especially in the field of energy. He said giving incentives to the failed Solyndra solar firm was a $500 million government investment, and that the Obama Administration had done the opposite of stoking the industry.

"When the community hears the government has picked a winner and given them $500 million, what happens to those other businesses? Their funding dries up," Mr. Romney said. "I'd end the practice of crony capitalism. When the President of the United States begins taking your money to give his donors, that's a problem."

In Farmington Hills, he shared the stage with Michigan's governor, who is gaining credit for having turned around Michigan's plunging state revenues and putting the state on track to a budget surplus, something Mr. Romney said would be his administration's goal for the country.

Governor Snyder said Michigan eliminated a $1.5 billion debt and eliminated more than $5.6 billion "long-term liabilities" in 2011. He said Michigan's biggest obstacle now is Washington.

"The issues in Washington are very much the same. Trillions of dollars that need to be paid back, the need to balance a budget, and more importantly the need to create more and better jobs," Mr. Snyder said. "The job is not getting done."

Mr. Romney said he hopes to do in Washington what Mr. Snyder is doing in Michigan.

He criticized so-called "Obamacare," the national health-care plan adopted in 2010 -- and which bears some resemblance to the health-care plan Mr. Romney pioneered as governor of Massachusetts. He also spoke against pro-labor policies such as the proposed card-check plan to improve unions' ability to organize workplaces, and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law as examples of government under President Obama that he said stymie free enterprise and job creation.

Tight primary race

Mark Brewer, the chairman of the Michigan Democratic Party, issued a statement concluding that Mr. Snyder's endorsement sidestepped Mr. Romney's position on the 2009 bailout that many say saved the domestic auto manufacturing industry from collapse.

"While Snyder may have endorsed Romney, he has refused to endorse Romney's escalating campaign against the American auto industry," Mr. Brewer said. He said Mr. Snyder supported the bailout while Mr. Romney advocated allowing General Motors and Chrysler to go bankrupt.

He added that "every other member of the Republican elite" has endorsed Mr. Romney, so Mr. Snyder's support is not a big surprise.

Polls have shown Mr. Romney locked in a head-to-head contest with or trailing ex-Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum. The two have traded broadsides: The Romney campaign has labeled Mr. Santorum a friend of "big labor," while the Santorum campaign has accused Mr. Romney of employing his huge financial reserves into mudslinging.

Mr. Santorum was covering similar territory Thursday in the Detroit suburbs.

Mr. Romney started his day with a factory tour in Monroe where he promised to work for the middle class.

"I'm in this race because I'm very concerned about my kids and grandkids," Mr. Romney said. He said his generation was given a good start by the World War II "greatest generation," but said that the next generation is threatened by deficit spending that has made the cost of federal government about a quarter of the entire economy. He'd like to reduce that proportion to 20 percent.

During a roundtable discussion with six local guests, Terry Bowman, Ford union worker and conservative activist, urged support of a national "right-to-work" law, which would end the requirement that employees join the union, a move labor unions vigorously oppose.

"What we need is a president who really understands what it takes to create the environment that creates jobs," Mr. Bowman said.

Mr. Romney said he supports that plan. It was one of a number of economic commitments Mr. Romney made, including cutting federal programs that aren't worth borrowing from China to pay for and sending other programs, such as food stamps and Medicaid, to the states to fund.

He said, "the very wealthy are doing fine. It's the middle class that [is] being crushed by the Obama economy, and I'm going to help the middle class get good jobs again."

"Ohio is right next door. They're listening to this. We've got to get the Midwest thriving and growing," he said.

During his speech in Cuyahoga County, Mr. Romney hit on familiar campaign themes that brought frequent applause, including dismantling the President's health-care initiative and ensuring that the National Labor Relations Board "is fair and not a tool of labor."

He continued his campaign against Obama policy, saying the President should not get credit for any economic recovery.

"The President did not create the recession," Mr. Romney conceded. "But he did manage to make it worse."

'Enthusiasm' noted

Rob Frost, chairman of the Cuyahoga County Republican Party, said the 1,200-seat sellout for the dinner was an indication of the strong interest in the GOP primary.

"It's been a long time since we've had a competitive primary," Mr. Frost said. "What we're seeing here is tremendous enthusiasm. We have people coming here tonight who want to be engaged."

Mr. Romney is hoping for a home-state advantage in Michigan. He was born in Detroit and raised in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., the son of a governor, George Romney (1963-69), who also had been chairman and chief executive of American Motors Corp.

He went to Harvard University for law school and moved to Massachusetts. He started the venture financing business Bain Capital and ran the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics. In 2003, he was elected governor of Massachusetts and served one term.

Mr. Snyder said a bonus of electing Mr. Romney is that he would be the first person born and raised in Michigan to be president.

The late former President Gerald Ford was born in Nebraska and raised in Grand Rapids, Mich. Mr. Ford was appointed vice president, became president when President Richard Nixon resigned, and lost his bid for election in 1976.

National Galvanizing, with 95 employees, is owned by Heidtman Steel Products Inc. of Toledo and National Materials Limited Partnership of Chicago.

Mark Ridenour, Heidtman's chief financial officer, said business right now is "pretty good." He said galvanized steel has been bonded and coated with zinc that impedes rust. The material is heavily used in automotive and truck manufacturing but other industries as well, such as in making culverts.

He said the 2009 taxpayer bailout of 2009 that Mr. Romney opposed should have gone through a normal bankruptcy proceeding, and he said federal taxpayer aid should have been channeled through that process to put the taxpayers in the first position of being paid back. "They probably spent more than they could have or should have," he said.

Michigan Republicans are set to vote Feb. 28, the same day as the Arizona primary. Ohio and nine other states are on the calendar for March 6 in the long journey to the party's nomination to run against President Obama.

Staff writer Jim Sielicki contributed to this report.

Contact Tom Troy at: tomtroy@theblade.com, or 419-724-6058.

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