Is Mitt Romney meddling in the 2016 presidential race? NBC’s Chuck Todd said Sunday that Romney “may be playing kingmaker of sorts” in the campaign. Romney’s friends and supporters say he is merely giving (solicited) advice to GOP candidates sharing his ideas, and keeping politicos and big donors in touch with each other.
Some in the Republican fray, however, have a different view. “Mitt said he will help Republicans figure out which candidate to support, and presumably dismiss those he deems not up to it,” notes one strategist with a 2016 campaign. “This is very nice of him to do, particularly from a two-time loser.”
There’s no doubt that Romney, who in January flirted with a third run for the White House, is again ramping up his activity. His E2 Summit in Utah last weekend attracted Marco Rubio, Scott Walker, Chris Christie, Carly Fiorina, Lindsey Graham and John Kasich, as well as a lot of wealthy businesspeople from the old (and still pretty loyal) Romney donor list.
It wasn’t a secret affair. The national press was welcome, and reporters watched while Romney delivered an extended PowerPoint address on “The Most Consequential Obama Foreign Policy Mistakes.” (There were 20 in all.) The candidates’ pitches to donors were open to the press, too.
Romney’s relish in criticizing the man who defeated him in 2012 led to some speculation that Romney has some sort of plan up his sleeve, that he wants to be secretary of state, or something big, if a Republican wins the White House next year.
“I don’t think there’s any job he is pursuing,” says someone in the Romney circle who stays in contact with him. “But he is certainly interested in influencing the process, and he knows that he can have a major role to play in that regard.”
There’s no doubt Romney would like to see the 2016 Republican race avoid the chaos and bloodiness of the long 2012 campaign. “I think it’s harmful in a process if you have Republicans attacking Republicans,” he told NBC Sunday, adding that he hopes to see a race in which “we can talk about the differences between our views to help people in the middle class and help the poor versus the views of our opposition, as opposed to going after one another.”
In addition, Romney is still dismayed by his poor showing with minorities in 2012. “The biggest mistake I made was not focusing very early on, on minority voters — Hispanic Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans,” he told NBC. It’s hard to imagine any Republican candidate who has looked at the ’12 exit polls needs that advice, but Romney is offering it.
Of course, Romney could be doing all of that behind closed doors, without the splashy gathering and the multiple media appearances. Is there something else going on? After all, the last two losing Republican presidential candidates, John McCain and Bob Dole, didn’t play such visible roles in the campaign the next time around.
“McCain went back to the Senate and had a voice and a platform,” says another Romney associate, via email. “For Dole, after decades in office, it made sense to make money and take a lower profile. For Romney — or anyone else who isn’t in office or hasn’t spent their career in office —it’s perfectly natural he’d want to continue to speak out on issues that concern him.”
Besides, the associate says, Romney is still popular with Republicans, has put in so much time working on GOP causes and raised so much money for the party, that “it would be odd for him to just drop off the map.”
So Romney remains in the center of the 2016 conversation. Another example: Hugh Hewitt, the influential talk radio host who will question GOP candidates this fall in CNN’s Republican debate, has published a new book calling on the eventual Republican nominee to pick Romney as vice presidential running mate, “thus borrowing the 2012 GOP nominee’s immense credibility, fundraising lists, and organizational expertise.” Hewitt, a longtime Romney supporter who helped edit Romney’s 2010 campaign book “No Apology,” calls a Romney VP choice “so obvious that we will know the quality of [the Republican candidate] by how early he embraces the selection publicly.”
Hewitt should probably not hold his breath; it’s fair to say Romney is finished with running for the White House. But he’s nowhere near finished playing a role in Republican politics.
