“Romney, I truly believe, made pandering statements during that 1994 debate just to convince the Massachusetts voters that he wasn’t this uber-white male who only accepts other uber-white Judeo-Christian males.”
What was he like before that debate? Well he switched his registration to Republican a few months before the debate and he voted for Paul Tsongas in 92.
Here is the kicker, this is where his political donations were going before that debate where you said that he was only pandering.
“Willard Mitt Romney donated $250 in 1992 to then-U.S. Rep. Dick Swett’s (D New Hampshire) successful re-election campaign. The one-term congressman served another term before losing to Republican Charles Bass in 1994. Two years later, Swett ran unsuccessfully against Republican Bob Smith for one of the Granite State’s U.S. Senate seats.
In 1992, the former Massachusetts governor and current Republican presidential contender , also donated $250 to Rep. John J. La Falce (D New York) and $1,000 to Douglas Delano Anderson, an unsuccessful Democratic primary candidate for the U.S. Senate seat held by Utah Republican Jake Garn, who retired that year.
So, between July 1989 and October 1993, Romney exclusively financed these three Democrats.”
“What was he like before that debate? Well he switched his registration to Republican a few months before the debate and he voted for Paul Tsongas in 92.”
And for someone living in Massachusetts, that took real courage. Much easier to just run as Democrat there, and much better chance of winning. But he changed to Republican and still won the governorship, then governed as conservatively as he could in uber-liberal Mass.
So in other words, anyone who has ever donated money to a Democrat nearly 20 years ago is unqualified to be a conservative Republican candidate in 2008?
There are always two sides to any political activity—appearances, and actual motivation.
Paul “Tax-on-gas” Tsongas was unelectable, he had cancer in 92 and would not have carried the Democratic nomination regardless of delegate count. It was their year w/ or w/o Slick Willy and they weren’t willing to lose.
Without necessarily having all the facts in hand
$250 for a congressional candidate, even in 1992, was essntially a joke in terms of contributions, and may have been done for access or to keep communication channels open with a representative working on something which Romney had an interest in.
Romney’s business interests had a substantial presence in New York, as well as nationwide, and John LaFalce was on a number of committees whose regulatory oversight affected his business interests. At this time, he was neither Gov. nor Senate candidate, but citizen Romney, and as a private citizen had every right to maintain good relations with persons in power (via campaign contributions) who could either make business go smoothly for them or put their foot on their nuts.
IIRC, Doug Anderson couldn’t get elected dog catcher.. Also its a common practice to contribute to the weakest democrat candidate to give them a shot at the general election to be clobbered by the GOP nominee. Think that doesn’t happen, its a REGULAR practice here in Kentucky, I know that much, I contributed to Bruce Lunsford’s unsuccessful primary campaign last year for Governor (paltry sum, only $50) because i thought he would get clobbered by ANY Republican here in the Gubernatorial race.