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Posted on 12/14/2007 9:29:25 AM PST by Reaganesque
Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney will be endorsed by Nebraska Gov. Dave Heineman, CNN has learned.
"In his campaign for the presidency, Mitt Romney has outlined the clearest vision to move our country forward,” Heineman says in a statement provided to CNN by the Romney campaign....
(Excerpt) Read more at politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com ...
MSM always underestimates Gov Heineman, he will be right again
Hopefully this will help Romney in Iowa.
Dave Heineman
David Eugene "Dave" Heineman (born May 12, 1948, in Falls City, Nebraska) is an American Republican politician who currently serves as the Governor of Nebraska. On December 13, 2007 he endorsed Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
Heineman graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1970. He served two terms as the Nebraska State Treasurer from 1994 to 2001 and was appointed to the office of Lieutenant Governor of Nebraska on October 1, 2001, and was elected to his first full term in 2002.
He became Governor on January 20, 2005, following Mike Johanns' resignation to become United States Secretary of Agriculture in President George W. Bush's Cabinet. On April 11, 2005, Heineman announced that he would be seeking election to a full four-year term. He had the backing of Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel, though he faced a difficult challenge in the Republican primary from former Nebraska Cornhuskers football coach and U.S. Representative Tom Osborne. Heineman took 49 percent of the more than 197,000 votes cast, and Osborne 45 percent . The Lincoln Journal Star's analysis of the race attributed Heineman's win to his opposition to Class I rural school reorganization and the granting of resident college tuition rates to the children of illegal immigrants, helping him win over rural voters.
Heineman defeated Democratic nominee David Hahn in the November 7, 2006, general election, capturing 76 percent of the vote.
Add Michael Novak and Mona Charen to the list.
Romney has the most GOP endorsements. View a list of U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives endorsing Gov. Romney (32 as of 12/01/2007) compiled by TheHill.com
View a list of state legislators endorsing Gov. Romney in Iowa (16), Michigan (40), Nevada (5), New Hampshire (14) and South Carolina (10) compiled by The Washington Post.
Entire Romney endorsement list here.
Don't think about Iowa too much. Mitt Romney must do well in Michigan and Florida. He'll need 25 of Michigan's 30 delegates and about 20 of Florida's 57 delegates. If he gets those numbers, Iowa won't matter. If he doesn't, winning in Iowa won't help him on February 5.
Bill
Bump!
Mitt Ping
~”Don’t think about Iowa too much.”~
I don’t know, it’s not a pure numbers game. He needs the psychological win in order to boost his nationwide appeal. He’s still substantially behind in the nationwide polls.
Given the ground Romney still has to make up nationally, do you envision a credible scenario where Romney can lose Iowa to Huckabee and still win the nomination?
Another big endorsement for Romney....keep them coming!
How you can have the name Reaganesque and endorse this liberal?
Yes, I can envision several scenarios where Mr. Romney loses Iowa and wins the nomination.
Let's assume that he scores a solid second in Iowa and then has a top-three finish in Wyoming. He has a strong win in New Hampshire, and then wins Michigan because he has a better organization there. He makes a top-three finish in the Nevada caucus and picks up even a few delegates in South Carolina by making a top-four finish. He then wins 15 to 20 delegates in Florida, again because he has built a strong organization there.
In the first scenario, Rudy Giuliani's name recognition gives him a second-place finish and a few delegates in Michigan, any finish ahead of Mike Huckabee in South Carolina, and any finish ahead of Mike Huckabee in Florida. If Fred Thompson also finishes ahead of Mike Huckabee in either of the southern states, the Huckabee campaign dissolves into the background like a "one hit wonder" band. The race then becomes Mitt Romney against Rudy Giuliani with Mike Huckabee still bleeding some support from Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson. That's the scenario that everyone has envisioned from the beginning.
In the second scenario, Mike Huckabee finishes ahead of Rudy Giuliani in Michigan, maybe South Carolina, and maybe even Florida. In that case, Rudy Giuliani completely loses his aura of invincibility. When Republicans who don't really follow politics suddenly see that Rudy Giuliani isn't invincible, they may evaluate all of the candidates and move to any of the others. If Rudy Giuliani has finished fourth in Iowa, third or fourth in New Hampshire, fourth in Michigan, and fourth in South Carolina, his campaign could collapse. All of those outcomes are possible, and if his campaign collapses, his supporters could end up anywhere. The campaign could become Mitt Romney versus Mike Huckabee, and I think the party would support Mitt Romney in most of the remaining primaries.
In a third scenario, Fred Thompson's push in Iowa allows him to make a strong, third-place finish. If he's close to Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee at all, he could get some momentum and then put all of his efforts into South Carolina and Florida. If Fred Thompson wins South Carolina and beats Mike Huckabee in Florida, we're back to the Giuliani/Thompson/Romney scenario. If Fred Thompson makes this push while Rudy Giuliani does poorly in these places, the race could become Mitt Romney versus Fred Thompson.
Again, all of these scenarios depend on Mitt Romney having the organization to win or at least tie in Michigan and to come out of Florida with a good number of delegates.
Bill
Thank you for your post on delegate counts. The press is acting like each state is winner take all. Do you know if the winning candidate of the Republican nomination must get 50% of the delegates at the convention?
I’m fairly certain that the winner must get 50% plus 1 delegate.
Thanks for the analysis. I must admit, I’ve been paying attention to politics for only a few years, and what I remember is Kerry’s victory in Iowa creating such a fervor that he was propelled to the nomination. Unlike in past primaries, where a candidate had the time to recover from an early setback (ala Mondale), the compressed schedule of this primary will mean that the ‘buzz’ factor is all that much more powerful.
Interesting take. Thanks for the link.
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