DES MOINES — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney on Thursday told hecklers at the Iowa State Fair who pressed him for solutions to paying for federal entitlement programs, “If you don’t like my answer, you can vote for someone else.”
On the 80-degree opening day of the fair, Romney found himself in the midst of a heated back-and-forth exchange about corporate greed with a retired Des Moines teacher and a former Catholic priest.
The give-and-take occurred about nine hours before Romney was scheduled to face off with seven other Republican presidential candidates at a debate in Ames, sponsored by the Republican Party of Iowa, FOX News and the Washington Examiner newspaper.
Propping his brown leather loafer on the hay bales of the Des Moines Register soap box Thursday morning, Romney gave a 10-minute speech that touted his biography as a businessman. He then opened it up for questions from the 50-person crowd.
Cherie Mortice, 62, hollered, “Do you support scrapping the Social Security payroll cap, so that rich people pay their fair share into the trust fund?”
Romney, who comes from a wealthy Michigan family and made his $200 million fortune in venture capital, said he recalled “a time in this country when we didn’t celebrate attacking people based on their success” and responded with a vow that he would not raise taxes.
The crowd began chanting, “Wall Street greed” and “scrap the tax,” causing Romney to raise his voice and yield more time to the agitated few among the crowd.
Joe Fagan, 71, jumped from his second-row seat on a bale of straw, pointed a finger and yelled about strengthening entitlement programs. He challenged Romney to present a plan.
“I’m not going to raise taxes, and if you want somebody that will raise taxes, then you can vote for Barack Obama,” Romney responded. “Barack Obama is why 25 million people don’t have jobs and can’t find jobs.”
Throughout his time on the soap box, Romney repeatedly accused Obama of killing the economy, worsening the recession and putting a damper on recovery, and invited those interested in restoring jobs to support him in the Iowa caucuses.
Later in the day at a Statehouse news conference, Iowa Democratic Party Chairwoman Sue Dvorsky sharply criticized Romney’s comments.
“Today at the Iowa State Fair, Mitt Romney stood and in answer to a question from a voter that had to do with corporations paying their fair share, he told that voter that corporations are people,” Dvorsky said. “Well, corporations are not people and the people that he was talking to are not his friends. This was just absolutely a tone-deaf response and yet, I’m afraid that Mitt Romney accidentally spoke his mind.”
But Marilyn Ricks, 73, of Story City, who showed up early at the fair with her husband to secure a shady patch of grass near the Des Moines Register Service Center, said she supports Romney because she’s looking for change.
“His economic policy is the only one that’s going to bring us out of this,” she said. His platform includes lowering taxes, reining in regulations and promoting domestic energy.
Ricks, who wore sunglasses and a Romney sticker on her left shoulder, said she thought that Romney, his wife, Ann, and five sons would make the best first family. She supported Romney’s campaign last time, when he ran a strong ground game and won the 2007 Ames Straw Poll, but finished second in the Iowa caucuses and did not secure the Republican nomination for president.
Romney speculated during his stump on the soap box that some of the more vocal members of the crowd helped send Obama to the White House four years ago and would vote to do the same in 2012.
In an interview with IowaPolitics.com, Mortice confirmed Romney’s guess about her being a Democrat and said she expected Romney’s defense of “the corporate world.”
“He’s trying to protect his own turf here. Maybe he didn’t anticipate that, you know, people in Iowa are pretty open-minded,” Mortice said. “I always listen to the other side of the aisle and, I don’t know, maybe he was taken aback that we were vocal.”
In contrast to her assessment, David Edgar Sr., 66, a retired middle school counselor from Minden, said the exchange exhibited the candidate’s strength.
“Romney held his ground well,” said Edgar, who is not yet sure who he will support for 2012. “He seems levelheaded, and he’s got all the qualifications.”
Massachusetts native John Butler, a 66-year-old who retired to Longwood, Fla., and spends his summers visiting state fairs nationwide, said he wasn’t sure Romney could be the next president, but the soap box appearance seemed like a great time to check out his platform.
“You have to be somewhat liberal to run up there,” he said, referring to Massachusetts, “but you need someone more conservative to be running the state.”
Butler said he remains undecided about whom to support, because he wants a strong candidate who can beat Obama. He said he thought the political activity at the state fair might help him make up his mind. He also said he looked forward to visiting the animals in the livestock tent, which he heard were among the best in the nation.
Two other presidential candidates were at the fair on opening day. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman visited the livestock barns, according to his campaign. Meanwhile, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich was spotted roaming the fair with his wife, Callista.
The fairgrounds will be flooded with eight presidential contenders Friday. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin also visits Friday, raising speculation that she may launch a bid for president.
Hannah Hess covers politics for IowaPolitics.com, which is owned by the Franklin Center for Government and Pubic Integrity. IowaPolitics.com Des Moines bureau chief Lynn Campbell contributed to this report.
