I had the privilege of sitting in on my first blogger conference call this afternoon with the Romney campaign. Former Senator Jim Talent (R-MO) and former New Hampshire Attorney General and RNC Committeeman Tom Rath were hosting the call along with Stephen Smith, Romney’s online communications director. Rath was described as their go-to guy for all things New Hampshire, and Talent is serving as Romney’s domestic policy taskforce chairman.
The purpose of the call was to specifically discuss tonight’s debate, so it was pretty short. Here’s some highlights:
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Romney will hit on a couple themes tonight during the debate. Tom Rath pointed out that two nights ago on the same stage, 8 people with completely different views of the world debated; Romney will be making a contrast “in sharp relief” of the choice American voters will have come next November. Also, Romney will be hitting his major campaign theme of American strength – strong economy, strong military, and strong families – again tonight.
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Jim Talent spoke of Romney’s ability to unite the GOP coalition (presumably with strength in those three areas) and his ability to persuade other people to his ideas as strong points heading into tonight’s debate.
- One of the questions brought up the fact that McCain has challenged his opponents to come up with something better if they don’t like his immigration plan, and whether or not we can expect to hear Romney’s immigration plan tonight. Talent and Rath said that Romney’s been clear on his immigration plan in the past: first, secure the border; second, put in place an employer verification system; third, do not give amnesty to illegal immigrants currently here; and fourth, strengthen the legal immigration system so we have more legal immigrants coming in that have the skills we need.
They decried some of the supporters of the bill for saying the current Senate immigration plan was a “common sense conservative solution that was the best we could do,” saying it is not common sense, it’s not conservative, it’s not a solution, and it’s not the best we can do. Don’t be surprised to hear that line from Romney tonight.
- Someone asked if Romney’s rise in poll numbers and McCain’s fall in poll numbers was primarily based on the immigration flap. Talent and Rath pointed out that Romney’s numbers have been on the rise long before this immigration bill came into play, and the main reason for his rise in the polls is that people are getting to know Romney and getting comfortable with him.
- In response to a question about whether immigration will be a big issue during the debate tonight, both Talent and Rath took the opportunity to criticize the format of these debates. They pointed out that having one or two issues dominate a two-hour debate doesn’t allow any of the candidates to talk about their overall philosophy, and also pointed out that despite being at the top of American’s concerns, health care hasn’t been discussed at any of the debates thus far.
- A question was asked about what, if any, milestones does New Hampshire have leading up to the primaries there that would be comparable to the Ames Straw Poll in Iowa. There isn’t anything specific to New Hampshrie, but the Romney campaign will continue to track fundraising numbers as an important indicator as to how the campaign is going, as well as public polls. They both pointed out that they will not be taking the polls really seriously until September, however, and pointed out that Ames will cause at least a couple candidates to drop out. They said how a race looks in June is very different than how it will look in September and then at the primary itself.
- The last question asked whether or not Mitt was frustrated with the fact that Fred Thompson was getting a ton of free press and had high poll numbers despite not even entering the race yet. Their response was the Romney campaign is very realistic about this entire process, and the fact of the matter is poll numbers will go up and down a lot over time. They pointed out Thompson is subject to scrutiny just like the rest of the candidates now, and ended by saying that you can’t get frustrated in this business and succeed.
Yours truly did not ask any questions; this being my first blogger conference call, I just hung around in the background taking it all in. As the Romney campaign does more of these, I will certainly get more involved – and perhaps ask you for help choosing what questions I ask.
June 5th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Beat me to it? Oh ell, I was a little afraid to start popping out questions as well.
June 5th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
[...] post by HeavyM and software by Elliott [...]
June 5th, 2007 at 3:04 pm
Jason,
Didn’t realize you were on there. Should’ve been quicker!
June 5th, 2007 at 3:06 pm
I was, except I was operating under my alias “Robert Bluey from Redstate.”
June 5th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
It is neato that we have a couple of “heavies” (HeavyM, no pun intented
) from this site on Mitt’s blogger call list. Look like we have everyone here with an first-hand access to teams of Rudy, Romney, McCain, F.Thompson, Brownback and others(?)
Those people are what make this site amazed. Again, Kudo to Kavon for opening this site to the whole candidates in the Republican race, and to his and his staff’ desires to have an open discussion about their candidates under both positive and negative lights. It is the best way to know which candidate is best for our country at this time. Kavon and your staff, thanks again!
June 5th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
Fascinating call HeavyM. One thing I would caution the Romney people about is not having a concrete plan of their own on immigration is bad news heading into tonight’s debate. I think McCain will effectively call Romney out on that. Although the pummeling mccain takes on stage could negate much of the attack.
June 5th, 2007 at 3:47 pm
They said “the Romney campaign will continue to track fundraising numbers as an important indicator as to how the campaign is going”?
If that’s anything close to a direct quote, Romney’s Q2 numbers must be really impressive so far.
June 5th, 2007 at 4:03 pm
The dude, did you read bullet point #3 in the article above? It seems to me that Romney has a concrete immigration plan.
June 5th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
Regarding bullet point three, that sounds decent as a run of the mill quote, but what Romney needs to do is release a very detailed plan that could actually be submitted as legislation. His buddy Demint could file it for him. But just saying a couple sentences about what he would do doesn’t cut it. It shows a lack of seriousness on his part and plays right into McCain’s line of reasoning about Romney merely playing politics with the issue. I’m sure Mitt has an army of policy wonks who could have put something like that together. So why hasn’t he?
June 5th, 2007 at 4:40 pm
The Dude,
The current legislation spent how many years in drafting and debating, and you want Romney to submit his own proposal only a few weeks after the current legislation became public and without a full staff and without working alongside the legislature?
Seems premature in the extreme.
An outline of the important bullet points is what I want to hear from a candidate. You get to hear 90% of their philosophy right there. I mean, just look at it…there’s already significant differences between McCain-Kennedy and what Romney has proposed.
June 5th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
I’m by no means defending McCain-Kennedy nor the sloppy manner in which it is being rammed through the senate. But Romney needs to put forth a serious plan. And I don’t mean a one page summary with bullet points. As for needing a long time to put it out, come on. This guy was a venture capitalist who touts his management experience. Surely Mitt can give us a detailed blueprint of how he would handle this issue. That is not too much to ask. I’d ask this of Rudy, but frankly he doesn’t really care if it passes or not. He’s just enjoying the spectacle of it all…
June 5th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
[...] Courtesy of our friend HeavyM over at race42008.com. [...]
June 5th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
Dude (I feel like a surfer), that is a pretty high standard. I mean Romney has to draft and submit the equivalent of legislation in order to be taken seriously on this issue?!?! His bullet points are so different from and better than McCain-Kennedy that I think he has gone far enough at this point to be taken seriously. Once he is president he can put out something more detailed through his friends in congress.
June 5th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
Actually, I believe what McCain is challenging Mitt (Note: I am a Mitt Supporter) is on how he would deal with the illegal immigrants already in the country. Mitt personally has said in The Ledger newspaper (Florida) last Friday or thereabout that he wants to focus on three points as outlined here (secure borders, employment ids system, and more effective immigration system to let people come here faster and according to the needs). Then he is open to negotiation on what we should do about the illegal immigrants, providing they do not receive the amnesty – meaning they pay fines, work for years with no benefits, pay taxes, head household heading to their origin to obtain the visas, or whatever… The point here is that he is still open to negotiation on this particular point. I think McCain is focusing on this point and claimed that is what the current bill is about.
But, duh! He kept missing the first 3 points Mitt has emphasized again and again!
June 6th, 2007 at 12:03 am
[...] to genuinely want him to enter into the race. Race42008’s blogger, HeavyM, was a part of a blogger conference call before the debate tonight (I’m so jealous – *sob*) and the question was asked tonight about Fred Thompson. Let me quote [...]