Chris Chocola, president of the free market Club for Growth, said Thursday morning that he didn’t know if Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was a pro-growth conservative.
“I don’t know,” he said when asked the question during a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. “We’ll see if he’ll be a pro-growth president.”
The Club for Growth did not endorse Romney during the primaries and is not weighing in on the presidential race this year. It is instead focusing its energies on Senate races.
Chocola said Romney has “the potential to exceed expectations” but add: “It’s a mixed bag with Romney. That ‘s his problem. People don’t really know … He’s got a mixed record when it comes to our issues.”
The nonprofit president said the GOP candidate was wrong for example to bash China over trade -”He knows better” – and but then added that “spending-wise in Massachusetts, he was really good. I think spending went up 2.1 or 2.2 percent annually when he was governor. That’s pretty good.”
Chocola followed that up with a mild, back-handed endorsement: “He’s our only choice for the Republicans now, so we’re not going to criticize him. We’re going to hope he exceeds our expectations.”
He added that Romney was problematic as a candidate because of his business background:
