SHORT BIO
Most recently, Romney served as the Governor of Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007. During his term, Governor Romney was successful in closing a nearly $3 billion budget gap inherited when he took office. Before his governorship, Romney was a Harvard-trained business executive known for his ability to help businesses grow and improve their operations. In 1999, after over 20 years of leading various private investment firms, Romney left behind his career as an entrepreneur to take over as President and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee, where he helped to turn around the 2002 Winter Olympic Games.
Romney is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but has emphatically stated that he is not a spokesman for his church.
ISSUE SUMMARY
Romney is running as a conservative candidate, though some accuse him of trying to reinvent himself as such for his run at the Presidency. His current stances include:
- Unclear on abortion, currently pro-life
- Supports tough crime policies, with strong regulation
- Supports Bush education policies, mostly
- Moderately strong environmental record, supporting emissions standards
- Opposes same-sex marriage, unclear about civil unions
- Supports non-governmental universal health care without taxation
- Against tax increases, except for gas taxes and business taxes
- Supports extreme measures such as wiretapping and other controversial surveillance
- Strongly supports continued use of Guantanamo Bay facility
- Favors moderate, predictable change in minimum wage
EXPANDED ISSUES and STANCES
- Unclear on his stance on abortion. During his governor race (and a previous Senate race in which he narrowly lost to Ted Kennedy) Romney seemed to take a pro-choice stance, claiming that Roe v. Wade is the law and that we should support it, and that he sustained and supported that law and the right of a woman to make that choice. Currently he claims to be pro-life. He is accused of flip-flopping on this issue.
- Supports a highly-regulated version of capital punishment, used in extreme cases.
- Supports the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy of the U.S. military, because it is working for now.
- Supports Bush’s No Child Left Behind education policies
- Supports vouchers, against tenure for teachers
- Strong advocate of abstinence education
- Against prayer in public schools
- Supports a combination approach to energy that includes pursuing alternative sources and finding domestic sources of oil
- Supports tough emissions standards for power plants even at the cost of jobs, saying “I will not protect jobs that kill people.”
- Fairly strong advocate for high environmental standards and policies
- Unclear on his stance on homosexual rights. Currently he opposes both same-sex marriage and civil unions. In 2004, he testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee for a bill that supported civil unions, but has since said that he is “only supporting civil unions if gay marriage is the alternative”. He is accused of flip-flopping on this issue. (Read more.)
- Supports the right of individuals to keep and bear arms, though he also supports moderate gun control regulations, including the Brady Bill and an assault weapons ban.
- Favors requiring nearly all citizens to obtain health insurance coverage by establishing means-tested subsidies for people who can’t afford it. This, he claims, provides universal coverage without more government interference or taxation.
- Supports stem-cell research as ethical but opposes using federal funds to support it.
- Favors moderate, predictable changes in the minimum wage linked to other indicators of growth, rather than “big jumps from time to time.”
- Campaigns as being for tax relief and tax cuts, but his policies typically shift taxes onto fees, gas taxes, or business taxes in order to raise needed funds. (Read more.)
- Supports FBI wiretaps and other controversial surveillance techniques, in the interest of our safety.
- Supports Guantanamo Bay as keeping combatants “where they don’t get access to lawyers [that] they get when they’re on our soil.” (Source.)
- Opposed the recent immigration bill, insisting it was not tough enough on illegal immigrants already here.
- Would not take the option of using tactical nuclear weapons off of the table.
- Mostly in agreement with Bush’s Iraq war policies, though he has expressed that he would change course if the surge does not work.
- Believes that “having the president meet with the authoritarian tyrants of the world is remarkably poor judgment.” (Source.)
