Posted on 03/19/2002 1:45:52 PM PST by mac_truck
BOSTON (AP) -- Acting Gov. Jane Swift dropped out of the governor's race Tuesday rather than fight for the Republican nomination against Mitt Romney, the acclaimed Salt Lake City Olympics chief.
Romney formally entered the race a few hours later. He thanked Swift for her years of work and said he didn't want to take attention away from her on ``her day.''
``I also think it's admirable that she's decided to focus her resources on managing the state during tough economic times and also to help raise her family with all her energy and heart,'' Romney said, surrounded by his wife, Ann, and other family members.
But he was quick to add: ``Lest there be any doubt, I'm in. The bumper stickers are printed, the Web site's going up. The papers are going in today.''
Swift, who has been plagued by personal and political controversies, said she decided not to take on the simultaneous tasks of being a mother of three, running for election and governing during a budget crunch.
``Having said early on the time with family was nonnegotiable, something had to give,'' Swift told reporters. She plans to serve out her term, until the end of the year.
Swift said she had spoken with Romney and pledged her support.
Romney, 55, has been riding a wave of popularity since successfully leading last month's Winter Olympics. A longtime Massachusetts resident who graduated from Brigham Young University in Utah and sent his children there, Romney graduated from Harvard Business School and went to work in Boston at Bain & Co., where he rose to chairman.
The venture capitalist has remained active in Belmont's Mormon community, which constructed a 70,000-square-foot temple in 2000.
There had been growing speculation that he would run for governor.
Last month, after a Republican activist tried unsuccessfully to get Swift a job in the Bush administration to ease her out of the race, she told reporters: ``I guess I should be accustomed to powerful men trying to tell me that they know better than I do what it is I should be doing.''
A Boston Herald poll published Sunday showed Romney, whose only political experience is an unsuccessful challenge to Sen. Edward Kennedy in 1994, leading Swift 75 percent to 12 percent.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said no one from the Bush administration urged her to drop out.
Swift said she would not take a federal job. She said she reached her decision to drop out on Monday.
``There isn't a working parent in America that hasn't faced it -- when the demands of the two tasks that you take on both increase substantially, something has to give,'' she said.
Her voice trembling, Swift added: ``Serving as governor of this great commonwealth has been an honor and a privilege and one for which I'll always be grateful.''
Swift said she did not know what she planned to do next, but told reporters, ``You guys keep telling me I'm young.''
Swift, 37, became Massachusetts' first female chief executive, and the nation's youngest, last April, succeeding Paul Cellucci when he became ambassador to Canada. She is the first U.S. governor to give birth in office when she had twin girls in May. She also has a 3-year-old daughter.
Until recently, Swift had said she was undaunted by a challenge from Romney. The Republican primary is Sept. 17.
The birth of Swift's twins produced a wave of favorable national publicity and a bounce in the polls. But when she returned to work at the end of June, she continued to find herself with little political capital and a Statehouse dominated by Democrats.
That made tough challenges even tougher: a worsening budget crunch, calls for added security measures after Sept. 11 and a controversial decision not to commute the sentence of a convicted child molester.
Earlier, as lieutenant governor, the state Ethics Commission ruled she had created an appearance of impropriety by allowing aides to baby-sit for her older daughter and fined her $1,250. She also used a State Police helicopter to fly home for Thanksgiving to care for her sick daughter.
More recently, she was sued by two members of the Turnpike Authority board whom she fired after they voted to delay toll hikes.
Five Democrats also are running for governor: Senate President Thomas Birmingham, former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, state Treasurer Shannon O'Brien, former state Sen. Warren Tolman and Steve Grossman, a former national Democratic Committee chairman.
Within moments of his announcement, Romney was challenged on his stand on abortion, a hot-button issue in a state that recently has supported fiscally conservative, socially progressive governors.
He said he would support a woman's right to choose.
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