November 15, 2007
Campaigning for Dad, Romney Son #3 Visits Caliente and Alamo

Photo by Dave Maxwell Josh Romney campaigning for his dad, Mitt Romney, during a meeting at Windmill Ridge.

By Dave Maxwell

Josh Romney, son of former Massachusetts governor and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, made a campaign swing through Lincoln County November 8 greeting voters and answering questions about his father.

Governor Romney has made full use of his five sons in campaigning for the presidency sending them, and his wife, to surrogate for him around the country. Josh, who lives in Salt Lake City, said before this trip to Nevada he has been stumping for his dad in Montana, Iowa, New Hampshire, Michigan, South Carolina, Wyoming, Florida, even Alaska.

“The good news is we have schedulers,” Romney said with a chuckle. “Typically, I take the intermountain and western states. I have three brothers back east and they are the more New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Florida guys.”

Alamo resident Edwin Higbee, 84, thought Romney was “quite impressive. It’s tough to speak for somebody else,” Edwin said. “Even if it’s your dad.” Higbee himself was involved in politics many years ago, spending at least 20 years as a County Commissioner. He said he remembers when “the rurals” held much more political clout back in the 1940s and 50s. “Senators and the works, they all used to stump here,” Higbee said.

Appearing before an assembled crowd at Alamo’s Windmill Ridge Restaurant, and telling a few light-hearted stories about his father, Romney answered questions from local residents that focused mostly on energy issues, where rising gasoline prices are causing a strain on community residents. Many commute to Las Vegas to work and have to go to Vegas or St. George for major shopping.

“Obviously it’s a big issue here in Nevada,” Romney said. “At my last stop, (Caliente earlier that morning) a man said that he had to sell his trucking business because gas prices have gotten so high.”

He said there are three areas that his dad wants to focus on, similar to President Reagan, during the campaign: “A strong military, a strong economy and a strong family.”

Josh gave a brief outline of things that his dad, who grew up in the private sector did. “He didn’t grow up inside Washington. He didn’t spend a lifetime in politics,” Josh said.

Over the past 30 years serving in the business world, Josh noted, helped him learn that “Year after year, if you don’t innovate and cut costs, you go out of business. Companies that haven’t changed in the past 30 years are all out of business. But the government is just fine to do the same thing, year after year after year.” Not good, he thought.

Romney said his dad would bring to Washington the belief that things in Washington have got to change. “We can’t carry on the way we’ve carried on for the last number of decades.”

Josh said Mitt Romney would bring the experience he had in private business, experience as president of the Salt Lake Olympic Committee and Governor of Massachusetts. “As Governor,” Josh said, “He took office with a $3 billion deficit, balanced the budget his first year and within four years had a $1 billion surplus. He knows what to do.”

Romney also said that nuclear power would “play an important role” in his father’s energy plan. However, he said he did not know where his dad stood on the Yucca Mountain issue and accompanying rail line that is highly controversial in the state. At present, neither Governor Romney nor fellow candidate Rudy Giuliani, have given a clear response to questions about Yucca Mountain.

On the issue of health care, Romney said his dad recognizes that the American people do not want a government health care takeover. “We don’t want the people who ran Katrina managing our health care system,” he said. In explaining a little of what the health care plan is, Josh alluded to comments his dad made just last month regarding the residents of Massachusetts. Romney’s proposal is to make having health insurance the same as having car insurance and home owners insurance. It would be legally required. Those who don’t buy coverage would face a penalty. Failure to sign up could lead to a loss of a personal tax exemption or garnishment of wages.

Josh said his dad wants to see the government step out of trying to nationalize health care and “let the states continue to experiment with their own plans to get affordable health insurance coverage for their people. Companies need to bring the rates down so it would not be prohibitively expensive. Those who couldn’t afford it would be subsidized by the government.”

Supporters of what is called an individual mandate say requiring coverage is a good way to reduce the number of uninsured as well as spread risks and costs, possibly helping lower health insurance premium growth. Critics of Romney’s plan in Massachusetts say forcing people to buy insurance is a bad idea unless the program has subsidies to help the poor buy coverage and is open to all, including those who are ill. Romney says his plan includes both.

Efforts to cover the uninsured in recent years have aimed mainly at expanding government programs for the poor, such as Medicaid. Large reforms, such as national health care, have been promoted by both Republicans and Democrats since the end of World War II, but all have failed.

While the Governor may not push his Massachusetts plan to the national level, Josh said his dad “does want to see states and the private sector continue to experiment with their own and try their own systems for health care.”

On energy matters, Josh said Mitt recognizes that “In the long term we have got to build better engines and become more efficient in the energy we are using right now.” Another point is to find alternative sources of oil, other than the Middle East, develop nuclear technology employing the technology the U.S. has provided to other countries that is proving highly successful and, “do more research on solar, geothermal and wind powered energy sources, ethanol, liquefied and gasified coal.”

“Illegal immigration is a big problem that we’ve got to stop," Romney said. His dad has a three-step program involving securing the borders by building an electronic fence on the border, implement an employment verification system using a photo ID card, and a number for legal immigrants who do want to work in the U.S. “Hiring an illegal immigrant would result in penalties much like if they didn’t pay their taxes,” he said.

Josh said the belief is that such a system “will dry up the magnet that is drawing so many people across the border. If they can’t get jobs, they’re going to stop coming. There really will be no reason for them to, if they can’t be hired.” Illegal immigrants who are in the U.S. now will be encouraged to apply for citizenship, but will have to go to the back of the line, so to speak, behind others who are also applying for citizenship.

Vaughn Higbee, former Lincoln County School Superintendent, who calls himself a Roosevelt Democrat, but is a registered Republican, said “We’re very conservative here and most of us are LDS,” but he didn’t think the fact that Governor Romney is also LDS would have much bearing on the presidential race.

Fifty years ago, when Las Vegas was a much smaller place and Lincoln County even had more residents, candidates had to campaign in the rural areas to draw the vote, Higbee noted. “Now, Las Vegas has grown so large that it really doesn’t matter how we vote,” he said. “The only thing we can hope for is that Vegas and Reno split their votes up enough so that they have to come out and see us a little bit. People want to see their politician’s faces, even if it’s just a polite gesture,” he said.

For a politician, going out to see “the rurals” can go a long way.