IOWA CITY, IA – One week before former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney returns to the state where social values are the top concern among a large segment of Republican voters, he faced an onslaught of character attacks from both the left and the right.
Rivals for the GOP presidential nomination questioned whether the frontrunner is a “true conservative,” while President Barack Obama’s campaign accused him of being “stunningly inconsistent.”
“Inconsistency on the issues” defeated Romney in Iowa four years ago during his first bid for the Republican nomination, said Bob Vander Plaats, a conservative evangelical leader who was the state chairman of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s winning bid in the 2008 Iowa caucus campaign.
Huckabee had a natural appeal to the state’s social conservatives, Vander Plaats said, while Romney was accused of wavering on abortion and same-sex marriage. Romney placed second in the 2008 Iowa caucuses.
Despite the criticism, Romney held a narrow lead in a recent NBC News/Marist poll of voters who said their main concern is that a candidate shares their values.
Romney won the top spot with 23 percent of support, compared to 20 percent for former Godfather’s Pizza CEO Herman Cain. The poll taken Oct. 3-5 had a sampling error of plus or minus 5.1 percentage points.
Thirty percent of respondents in the poll of 311 likely Iowa Republican caucus-goers said the most important quality that will decide their vote is that the candidate shares their values.
By comparison, 29 percent said it’s the candidate’s positions on the issues, 20 percent said the top quality is the ability to beat Obama in 2012, and 17 percent say it’s having the experience to govern.
Yet when Romney returns to Iowa on Oct. 20 to meet with voters, he will stick to a theme that’s been consistent throughout his campaign, according to Iowa campaign spokesman David Kochel.
“The governor will continue to focus on how to fix the economy and create jobs,” Kochel said, “because that is the primary concern of the American people, particularly the millions who are unemployed or underemployed in the Obama economy.”
Romney has remained steadfast this year in his focus on the economy during his previous two visits to Iowa.
He touted his experience in the private sector at a May forum co-sponsored by IowaPolitics.com, and later at the Iowa State Fair crowd. He bragged that he spent his career in the private sector as CEO of Bain & Company, a management consulting company, and co-founder of Bain Capital, a private equity investment firm. He also touted himself as the right candidate to get the economy back on track during a business roundtable in Pella.
Sticking to the economy is a smart strategy, said former Republican Party of Iowa Chairman Rich Schwarm, of Lake Mills.
“Most Iowans have made up their opinion of what they think of Mitt Romney on his religion and on his social issues,” Schwarm said. “The times are probably much more crucial now for economics than they were even four years ago, so I think he should and probably will continue his message about job creation and managing the budget.”
Yet critics attack him for positions taken during the four years he served as governor of the Bay State.
In a conference call with reporters, Obama’s chief campaign strategist David Axelrod on Wednesday accused Romney of being “stunningly inconsistent” for supporting Massachusetts’ health care plan, then criticizing the federal plan.
Many see the health care law that Romney implemented as the precursor to Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, a law requiring all Americans to carry health insurance.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign followed a similar line of attack in a web video released this week that features an old clip of the late Tim Russert interviewing Romney on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
In the video clip, Russert asks that if the health plan is working in Massachusetts, why wouldn’t he apply it to the rest of the country. Romney replied “I would,” even though he has since said that he wants to repeal the law Obama signed last year.
The video also questions whether Romney is a “true conservative.”
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s endorsement of Romney this week may have convinced some Iowans that Romney has the credentials necessary, Iowa State University political science professor Steffen Schmidt said Wednesday on Iowa Public Radio.
“Christie was the supposed darling and the person every Republican wanted,” Schmidt said. “All of a sudden he has basically put a sword on the shoulder of Mitt Romney and knighted him.”
But the pressure is still on for Romney to answer Iowans questions, Vander Plaats said.
Iowa voters want “not only to hear what a candidate thinks, but we want to know why does a candidate think the way they think,” said Vander Plaats, who also serves as chief executive officer of The Family Leader, a conservative nonprofit advocacy group.
Romney remains mum on an invitation to a presidential candidate forum sponsored by the group in November. He also turned down an invitation to appear in presidential forum Oct. 22 at the Iowa State Fairgrounds that’s sponsored by the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition, a nonpartisan, nonprofit Christian group.
Hannah Hess covers government and politics for IowaPolitics.com, which is owned by the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity.
