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| AP Photo Archive |
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| Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney speaks at the opening session of the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in Memphis, Tenn., Friday, Mar. 10, 2006, at the Peabody Hotel. |
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There has been much speculation that Mitt Romney, governor of Massachusetts, is fundraising and planning to campaign for U.S. president.
“He’s probably going to run,” said Bob Inama, a BYU-I political science professor. “I think he’s a great candidate, but he may have a hard time with the religious rights groups that supported President Bush, because he’s a Mormon.”
Gov. Romney held a fundraiser with some of Utah’s big Republican donors, yet he currently has no official plans to run for president and he said he wouldn’t run for re-election as governor of Massachusetts, according to the Associated Press.
Gov. Romney held the fundraiser Saturday, March 4, at the Log Haven restaurant in Mill Creek Canyon, Utah.
A few who attended the event mentioned it would be a struggle for Gov. Romney in the national election because of his membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“He’ll just have to cross each bridge as he comes to it because I’m sure that will be a battle at times,” said Drue Price, who attended the fundraiser.
In an unofficial vote assessing potential candidates for the 2008 presidential elections taken at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference Gov. Romney gained 14.4 percent of the votes. This put him second to Tennessee Senator Bill Frist who received 36.9 percent, according to AP.
Even though the poll placed him high in the running, Gov. Romney and his staff said they were expending no energy on and had no interest in the poll.
Gov. Romney was president and CEO of the Salt Lake Olympic Committee and is credited with helping to make the 2002 Winter Games a success after the Olympics were caught up in scandal and financial crisis, according to the Office of the Governor of Massachusetts.
Gov. Romney received his bachelor’s with highest honors from Brigham Young University in 1971. In 1975, he was awarded a master’s from Harvard Business School and was named a Baker Scholar. In 1975, he received his Juris Doctorate cum laude from Harvard Law School.
