In a little symbiotic campaigning, Republican Bob McDonnell and Bill Bolling are huddling with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney in Richmond Friday for a joint appearance.
McDonnell of course is waiting for this weekend to become the official Republican nominee for the race for governor this fall so he can face off against who survives the Democratic primary between Brian Moran, Terry McAuliffe and Sen. Creigh Deeds.
Bolling faces a re-election challenge from Patrick Muldoon but is widely expected to retain his place on the ballot - although remember this is a convention so only the insiders are going to decide.
Meanwhile, Romney is laying the groundwork for possible 2012 Republican presidential campaign. Romney washed out of the crowded 2008 primary field - which was thick with folks like John McCain, Rudy Giuliani and Mike Huckabee. But Romney's business and executive background were seen as political strengths - especially when the global marketplace went in the tank during the fall campaign.
Romney has been widely discussed as a potential candidate in 2012 against conservative folks like Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Florida Gov. Charlie Christ and Newt Gingrich. And Romney has been mxing it up in the other governor's race on the ballot this year in New Jersey.
Just this week Romney endorsed one of the Republican candidates in New Jersey.
He also hosted a round table in Northern Virginia with business leaders - all this likely laying the groundwork for Romney to make a move to stop Barack Obama from securing a second term.
But Romney is not without problems in the GOP field - in fact he tried to fight against those issues in Hampton Roads. Romney delivered a commencement address at Pat Robertson's Regent University last year - but the Virginia Beach evangelical leader still ended up backing Giuliani - despite the former New York mayor's three marriages and acceptance of abortion and gay rights.
Romney recent took some fire from new Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele who said the party rejected Romney because of his Mormon faith. Then in what is becoming tradition for Steele thanks to Rush Limbaugh - he backtracked quickly afterward.
Romney doesn't have to mince words about McDonnell and Bolling - so he's likely to talk them up strongly on Friday - it ought to be interesting to see what McDonnell offers back.
I would love to see Romney back in the race for 2012. I doubt the economy will have rebounded much by then, so his business expertise will come in handy and will make him a very strong candidate. He nailed the Chrysler bankruptcy issue several months before anyone was willing to speak up, we may have been able to save the taxpayers another few billion dollars there.
In general, he is not liked by the liberals because of his stance on reducing entitlements like welfare. Somehow, the fact that he has been so successful in his business dealings comes across as a negative to the the same liberal groups.
Posted by: UVA Fan | Friday, May 29, 2009 at 06:40 AM
Charlie Crist is a conservative? Since when?
Posted by: Josh Painter | Thursday, May 28, 2009 at 08:03 PM