A governor (from French ''gouverneur'') is a governing official, usually the executive (at least nominally, to different degrees also politically and administratively) of a non-sovereign level of government, ranking under the head of state. In federations, a governor may be the title of each appointed or elected politician who governs a constituent state.

In countries, the heads of the constitutive states, provinces, communities and regions may be titled ''Governor'', although this is less common in parliamentary systems such as in some European nations and many of their former colonies, which use titles such as ''President of the Regional Council'' in France and ''Ministerpräsident'' in Germany, where in some states there are governorates () as sub-state administrative regions. Other countries using different titles for sub-national units include Spain and Switzerland.

The title also lies, historically, to executive officials acting as representatives of a chartered company which has been granted exercise of sovereignty in a colonial area, such as the British HEIC or the Dutch VOC. These companies operate as a major state within a state with its own armed forces.

There can also be non-political governors: high-ranking officials in private or similar governance such as commercial and non-profit management, styled governor(s), who simply ''govern'' an institution, such as a corporation or a bank. For example, in the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth countries there are prison governors ("wardens" in the United States), school governors and bank governors.

The adjective pertaining to a governor is ''gubernatorial'', from the Latin root ''gubernare''. The correct female form is ''governess'', though especially in the US, female officials are often referred to by the male form of the noun to avoid confusion with other meanings of the term.

Pre-Roman empires[link]

Though the legal and administrative framework of provinces, each administrated by a governor, was created by the Romans, the term ''governor'' has been a convenient term for historians to use in describing similar systems in antiquity. Indeed, many regions of the pre-Roman antiquity were ultimately replaced by Roman 'standardized' provincial governments after their conquest by Rome.

Egypt [link]

In Pharaonic times, the governors of each of dozens of provinces in the kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt (called "nomes" by the Greeks, and whose names often alluded to local patterns of religious worship) are usually known by the Greek word Nomarch. The whole (or most) of Egypt was repeatedly reduced to the status of province of a larger empire under foreign conquerors, notably under an Achaemenid satrap (see below).

Pre- and Hellenistic satraps[link]

Media and Achaemenid Persia introduced the satrapy, probably inspired by the Assyrian / Babylonian examples

Alexander the Great and equally Hellenistic diadoch kingdoms, mainly Seleucids (greater Syria) and Lagids ('Ptolemies' in Hellenistic Egypt)

in later Persia, again under Iranian dynasties:

* Parthia

* the Sassanid dynasty dispensed with the office after Shapur I (who had still 7 of them), replacing them with petty vassal rulers, known as ''shahdar''s

In ancient Rome[link]

From the creation of the earliest Roman subject provinces a governor was appointed each year to administer each of them. The core function of a Roman governor was as a magistrate or judge, and the management of taxation and public spending in their area.

Under the Republic and the early Empire, however, a governor also commanded military forces in his province. Republican governors were all men who had served in senior magistracies (the consulate or praetorship) in Rome in the previous year, and carried related titles as governor (''proconsul'' or ''propraetor''). The first Emperor, Octavianus Augustus (who acquired or settled a number of new territories; officially his style was republican: Princeps civitatis), divided the provinces into two categories; the traditionally prestigious governorships remained as before (in what have become known as "senatorial" provinces), while in a range of others he retained the formal governorships himself, delegating the actual task of administration to appointees (usually with the title ''legatus Augusti''). The ''legatus'' sometimes would appoint a prefect (later procurator), usually a man of equestrian rank, to act as his deputy in a subregion of the larger province: the infamous character of Pontius Pilate in the Christian Gospels was a governor of this sort.

A special case was Egypt, a rich 'private' domain and vital granary, where the Emperor almost inherited the theocratic status of a Pharaoh. The Emperor was represented there by a governor ''sui generis'' styled ''praefectus augustalis'', a title evoking the religious cult of the Emperor.

Emperors Diocletian (see Tetrarchy) and Constantine in the third and fourth centuries AD carried out a root and branch reorganisation of the administration with two main features:

Provinces were divided up and became much more numerous (Italy itself, before the 'colonizing homeland', was brought into the system for the first time); they were then grouped into dioceses, and the dioceses in turn into four praetorian prefectures (originally each under a residing co-emperor);

Military responsibilities were removed from governors and given to new officials called ''comes rei militaris'' (the comital title was also granted to many court and civilian administrative positions) or ''dux'', later also ''magister militum''.

The prestige governorships of Africa and Asia remained with the title proconsul, and the special right to refer matters directly to the Emperor; the ''praefectus augustalis'' in Alexandria and the ''comes Orientis'' in Antioch also retained special titles. Otherwise the governors of provinces had various titles without obvious logic, some known as ''consularis'', some as ''corrector'', some as ''praeses''. Apart from Egypt and the East (''Oriens'' - ''viz'' greater Syria), each diocese was directed by a governor known as a ''vicarius''. The prefectures were directed by ''praefecti praetorio'' (greatly transformed in their functions from their role in the early Empire).

Byzantium [link]

This system survived with few significant changes until the collapse of the empire in the West, and in the East the breakdown of order with the Persian and Arab invasions of the seventh century. At that stage a new kind of governor emerged, the Strategos a role leading the themes which replaced provinces at this point, and involving a return to the amalgamation of civil and military office which had been the practice under the Republic and the early Empire.

Legacy[link]

While the Roman administration in the West was largely destroyed in the barbarian invasions, its model was remembered, and would again be very influential through two particular vehicles: Roman law and the Christian Church.

Holy Roman/ Habsburg Empires and successor states[link]

Reichskommissar

Turkish rule[link]

In the Ottoman empire, all Pashas (generals) administered a province of the Great Sultan's vast empire, with specific titles (such as Mutessaryf; Vali = Wāli was often maintained or even revived in oriental successor states; cfr. Beilerbei (rendered as Governor-general, as he is appointed above several provinces under individual governors) and Dey)

British Empire and Commonwealth of Nations[link]

In the British Empire a governor was originally an official appointed by the British monarch (or in fact the cabinet) to oversee one of his colonies and was the (sometimes notional) head of the colonial administration. A governor's power could diminish as the colony gained more responsible government vested in such institutions as an Executive Council to help with the colony's administration, and in a further stage of self-government, Legislative Councils and/or Assemblies, in which the Governor often had a role.

Today crown colonies of the United Kingdom continue to be administered by a governor, who holds varying degrees of power. Because of the different constitutional histories of the former colonies of the United Kingdom, the term "Governor" now refers to officials with differing amounts of power.

Administrators, Commissioners and High Commissioners exercise similar powers to Governors. (Note: such High Commissioners are not to be confused with the High Commissioners who are the equivalent of Ambassadors between Commonwealth states).

Frequently the name 'Government House' is given to Governors' residences.

:The term can also be used in a more generic sense, especially for compound titles which include it: Governor-General and Lieutenant-Governor.

Vice-Regal Governors[link]

United Kingdom overseas territories[link]

In the United Kingdom's remaining overseas territories the governor is normally a direct appointee of the British Government and plays an active role in governing and lawmaking (though usually with the advice of elected local representatives). The Governor's chief responsibility is for the Defence and External Affairs of the colony.

In some minor overseas territories, instead of a Governor, there is an Administrator or Commissioner, or the job is ex officio done by a High Commissioner.

Australia[link]

In Australia, each state has the governor as its formal representative of the Queen as head of the state government. It is not a political office but a ceremonial office. Each state governor is appointed by the Queen of Australia on the advice of the Premier who is the political chief executive of the state government (until 1986, they were appointed by the Queen of the United Kingdom on the advice of the British Government). State Governors have emergency reserve powers but these are rarely used. The Territories of Australia other than the ACT have Administrators instead of governors, who are appointed formally by the Governor-General. The Governor-General is the representative of and appointed by the Queen of Australia at a federal level on the advice of the Prime Minister of Australia.

As with the Governors-General of Australia and other Commonwealth Realms, State Governors usually exercise their power only on the advice of a government minister.

Canada[link]

In Canada, there are governors at the federal and provincial levels of government who, within their jurisdictions, act as viceroys to the Queen of Canada, who is Canada's Head of State. The federal governor is the Governor General of Canada, and the governor of each province is the Lieutenant Governor. The Governor General is appointed by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister of Canada, whereas the lieutenant governors are appointed by the Governor General on the advice of the Prime Minister. The role of a governor in Canada is largely ceremonial, although they do retain the authority to exercise reserve powers in exceptional circumstances.

Each of the three territories is headed by a commissioner appointed by the Prime Minister. Unlike provincial lieutenant governors, they are not viceroys, but rather representatives of the federal government.

New Zealand[link]

The Governor-General of New Zealand is always Governor of the Ross Dependency, an Antarctic sector which is claimed by the Realm of New Zealand.

Within the United Kingdom[link]

Within the United Kingdom itself, there was a position of Governor of Northern Ireland from 1922 until the suspension of the devolved Parliament of Northern Ireland in 1973.

From the 16th century until 1995 there was a Governor of the Isle of Wight, part of England.

Elsewhere in the Commonwealth[link]

India[link]

In India each state has a ceremonial Governor appointed by the President of India. These Governors are different from the Governors who controlled the British-controlled portions of the Indian Empire (as opposed to the princely states) prior to 1947.

Governor is the head of the state. Generally, a Governor is appointed for each state, but after the 7th Constitutional Amendment, 1956, a Governor can be appointed for more than one state.

Malaysia[link]

In Malaysia, each of four non-monarchical states (Penang, Malacca, Sabah and Sarawak) has a ceremonial Governor styled ''Yang di-Pertua Negeri'', appointed to renewable four-year terms by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the federal King of Malaysia on the advice of the Prime Minister after consulting the state governments. These states each has a separate head of government called the ''Ketua Menteri'' or Chief Minister. The four Yang di-Pertua Negeri are members of the Conference of Rulers, however they cannot participate in the election of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, discussions related to the privileges of the Malay rulers and matters concerning the observance of Islam.

Nigeria[link]

In Nigeria (once a colony governed by a single British Governor before independence), the leaders of the regions, which in 1967 were divided into states, have been known as governors since 1954. Following a military coup in November 1993, President Sani Abacha suspended all the governors, and appointed administrators. When democracy was restored in 1999, the office of governor was revived and new governors were elected. The president of Nigeria can suspend state governors in a state of emergency and replace them with administrators. They are elected by popular vote.

Pakistan[link]

In Pakistan, each of the four provinces has a Governor who is appointed by the President.The governor is the representative of the president in their province and is the ceremonial head of the province whereas the chief minister is the head of the provincial government. The governor exercises powers similar to the president's, in their province respectively.

Papua New Guinea[link]

In Papua New Guinea, the leaders of the provinces have been known as governors since August 1995. Previously they had been known as premiers.

Sri Lanka[link]

The provincial councils of the 9 provinces of Sri Lanka are headed by a governor, as representatives of the President. Prior to 1948, when Ceylon as Sri Lanka was known back then, the Governor of Ceylon was head of the British Colony

Russia and former Soviet Union[link]

In the Russian Empire, Governorate (Guberniya) and Governorate-General were the main units of territorial and administrative subdivision since the reforms of Peter the Great. These were governed by a Governor and Governor-General respectively.

A special case was the Chinese Eastern Railroad Zone, which was governed as a concession granted by Imperial China to the Russian 'Chinese Eastern Railroad Society' (in Russian ''Obshchestvo Kitayskoy Vostochnoy Zheleznoy Dorogi''; established in 17 December 1896 in St. Petersburg, later moved to Vladivostok), which built 1,481 km of tracks (Tarskaya - Hilar - Harbin - Nikolsk-Ussuriski; 3 November 1901 traffic opened) and established on 16 May 1898 the new capital city, Harbin; in August 1898, the defense for Chinese Eastern Railroad (CER) across Manchuria was assumed by Russia (first under Priamur governor).

On 1 July 1903, the Chinese Eastern Railroad was opened and given authority of its own CER Administration (Russian: ''Upravleniye KVZhD''), vested in the Directors of the Chinese Eastern Railroad, with the additional quality of Governors of the Chinese Eastern Railroad Zone (in Harbin; as such being 12 August 1903 – 1 July 1905 subordinated to the imperial Viceroyalty of the Far East, see Lüshunkou). The post continued to function despite various political changes until after World War II.

Currently, some of the administrative divisions of Russia are headed by governors, while others are headed by Presidents or heads of administration. From 1991 to 2005 they were elected by popular vote, in 2005–2012 they have been appointed by the federal president and confirmed by the province's legislature. After the debate, conducted by State Duma in April, 2012, the direct elections of governors are expected to be restored.

Other modern Asian countries[link]

Indonesia[link]

In Indonesia, the title ''gubernur'' refers to the highest ranking executive of a Provincial Government. The Governor and the Vice Governor are elected by a direct vote from the people as a couple, so the Governor is responsible to the provincial residents. The governor had a term of five years to work in office and can be re-elected for another single period. In case of death, disability, or resignation, a government official known as Vice Governor would stand in as Governor or acting Governor.

The elected Governor will be inaugurated by the President, or by the Indonesian minister of home affairs in the name of the President. In addition, the Governor is representative of central government in such province, so the Governor is responsible to the President. The Governor authority is regulated within Indonesian Act Number 32 Year 2004 and Governmental Ordinance Number 19 Year 2010.

Principally, the Governor has the tasks and the authorities to leads governmental services in the province based upon the policies that have been made together with the Provincial Parliament.

The Governor is not the superordinat of regents or mayors, but he/she is only to guide, to supervise, and to coordinate city/municipal and regencial governments. In other part, municipal and regencial governments have rights to manage each governance affairs based on autonomy principle and assistantship duties.

Japan[link]

In Japan, the title refers to the highest ranking executive of a Prefectural Government. The Governor is elected by a direct vote from the people and had a fixed term of four years. He / she can be subjected to a recall referendum. In case of death, disability, or resignation, a government official known as Vice Governor would stand in as Governor or acting Governor.

See List of governors of Japan for a list of the current governors.

People's Republic of China[link]

In the People's Republic of China, the title "Governor" () refers to the highest ranking executive of a provincial government. The Governor is usually placed second in the provincial power hierarchy, below the Secretary of the provincial Communist Party of China (CPC) committee (省委书记), who serves as the highest ranking Party official in the province. Governors are elected by the provincial congresses and approved by the provincial party chief. All governors are not locals in the provinces which they govern.

A Governor can be also used when referring to a County Governor (县长).

Philippines[link]

In the Republic of the Philippines, the title "Governor" (''Punong Lalawigan'' in Filipino), refers to the highest ranking executive of a Provincial Government. The Governor is elected by a direct vote from the people and had a fixed term of three years. An incumbent Governor can only serve only up to three consecutive terms. He may however be suspended by either the Ombudsman or President (through the Secretary of Interior and Local Government). He may be removed by the President if found guilty of an administrative case or a criminal act during his incumbency. He may be subjected to a recall vote, but unlike a referendum, the voters elect the governor of their choice. In case of death, disability, resignation, forced removal or suspension, a government official known as Vice Governor (elected separately in the same election for governor), succeeds as Governor, or acting Governor, as the case may be.

In the Autonomous Region on Muslim Mindanao, a Regional Governor and Regional Vice Governor is elected by a block vote similar to the United States President.

Other Colonial empires[link]

Other European naval powers than the UK with colonies in Asia, Africa and other areas, which sometimes chartered companies to rule the colonies instead, gave or still give some, but not always all, of the top representatives of (or rather in) their colonies the title of governor.

See:

Danish overseas colonies

Dutch Empire

Empire of Japan

French colonial empire

German colonial empire

Italian empire

Overseas expansion of the United States

Portuguese Empire

Spanish Empire

Swedish overseas colonies

Other modern countries in North America[link]

===United States===

In the United States, the title ''governor'' refers to the chief executive of each state or insular territory; retaining sovereign police power, and not subordinate to the federal authorities except by laws provided by the enumerated powers section of the federal constitution, but the political and ceremonial head of the state. Nearly 3/4 of the states (36) hold gubernatorial elections in the same years as midterm elections (2 years off set from presidential elections). 11 states hold them in the same years as presidential elections (Vermont and New Hampshire hold elections every two years in every even numbered year), while the remaining 5 hold them in odd numbered years (2 in the year after a presidential election, three in the year before).

In colonial America, when the governor was the representative of the monarch who exercised executive power, many colonies originally indirectly elected their governors (that is, through assemblies and legislatures), but in the years leading up to the American Revolutionary War, the Crown began to appoint them directly. During the American Revolution, all royal governors were expelled (except one; see Jonathan Trumbull) but the name was retained to denote the new elected official.

Before achieving statehood, many of the fifty states were territories. Administered by the federal government, they had governors who were appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate rather than elected by the resident population.

Mexico[link]

In the United Mexican States, ''governor'' refers to the elected chief and head of each of the nation's thirty one Free and Sovereign States, and their official title in Spanish is ''Gobernador''. Mexican governors are directly elected by the citizens of each state for six-year terms and cannot be re-elected.

Other modern countries in South America[link]

Many of the South American republics (such as Chile and Argentina) have provinces or states run by elected governors, with offices similar in nature to U.S. state governors.

Brazil[link]

Until the 1930 Revolution, the heads of the Brazilian Provinces then States were styled Presidents (''presidentes''), later governors (''governadores'') and intervators (''interventores'', appointed by the federal government) and finally in 1945 only governors.

Other European countries and empires[link]

Austria[link]

A Landeshauptmann (German for "state captain", literally 'country headman'; plural ''Landeshauptleute'' or ''Landeshauptmänner'' as in Styria till 1861; ''Landeshauptfrau'' is the female form) is an official title in German for certain political offices equivalent to a Governor. It has historical uses, both administrative and colonial, and is presently used in federal Austria and a majority German-speaking province of Italy.

Benelux monarchies[link]

In the Netherlands, the government-appointed heads of the provinces were known as ''Gouverneur'' from 1814 until 1850, when their title was changed to ''King's'' (or ''Queen's'') ''Commissioner''. In the southern province of Limburg, however, the commissioner is still informally called Governor.

In the Dutch crown's Caribbean Overseas territories, the style Governor is still used (alongside the political head of government) in the Netherlands Antilles as well as since 1986 on the neighbouring island of Aruba (separated from the former)

In Belgium, each of the ten provinces has a Governor, appointed by the regional government. He represents not only the regional but also the federal government in the province. He controls the local governments and is responsible for law and order, security and emergency action. The national capital of Brussels, which is not part of a province, also has a governor with nearly the same competences.

France[link]

During the Ancien Régime in France, the representative of the king in his provinces and cities was the "gouverneur". Royal officers chosen from the highest nobility, provincial and city governors (oversight of provinces and cities was frequently combined) were predominantly military positions in charge of defense and policing. Provincial governorsalso called "lieutenants généraux"also had the ability of convoking provincial parlements, provincial estates and municipal bodies. The title "gouverneur" first appeared under Charles VI. The ordinance of Blois of 1579 reduced their number to 12, but an ordinance of 1779 increased their number to 39 (18 first-class governors, 21 second-class governors). Although in principle they were the king's representatives and their charges could be revoked at the king's will, some governors had installed themselves and their heirs as a provincial dynasty. The governors were at the height of their power from the middle of the 16th to the middle of the 17th century, but their role in provincial unrest during the civil wars led Cardinal Richelieu to create the more tractable positions of intendants of finance, policing and justice, and in the 18th century the role of provincial governors was greatly curtailed.

Germany[link]

In today's German states of Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria, Hesse, and North Rhine-Westphalia there are - and earlier in more German states there were - sub-state administrative regions called in , which is sometimes translated into English as governorate. Thus its respective head, in , is also translated as governor. Since in analogy to the US terminology the heads of the German states are - besides the translation of their German appellation as Minister-President () - also translated as governors, using the term governor in both cases is ambiguous and somewhat confusing.

Italy[link]

The essentially maritime empire of the Venetian republic, comprising Terra Firma, other Adriatic (mainly Istria and Dalmatia) and further Mediterranean (mainly Greek) possessions, used different styles, such as ''(castelleno e) provveditore (generale)'' or ''baile''.

In today's Italy, the official name of a head of a Regione (the Italian subnational entity) is ''Presidente della Giunta regionale'' (President of the regional executive council), but since 2000, when a constitutional reform decided the direct election of the president by the people, it has been usual to call him ''governatore'' (governor).

Papal and Vatican particularity[link]

In the various Italian provinces (former principalities and city-states) that became amalgamated as the Papal States, the Holy See exerted temporal power via its Legates and Delegates, including some Cardinals

Also in Avignon and the surrounding southern French Comtat Venaissin, the home of the Popes during their 'Babylonian exile', and retained centuries after, but never incorporated into the Papal States, Legates and Vice-legates were appointed.

The sovereign modern remnant of the formerly large Papal States, the tiny Vatican City State, is now a mere enclave in Rome, the capital of Italian Republic. As it is too small to have further administrative territorial divisions, it is the equivalent of a Prime Minister, Governor and Mayor all roled in to one post, styled the Governor of Vatican City.

Modern equivalents[link]

As a generic term, Governor is used for various 'equivalent' officers governing part of a state or empire, rendering other official titles such as:

colonial High Commissioner (not the Ambassadors exchanged within the Commonwealth)

And this also applies to non-western and/or antique culture

Other meanings of the word[link]

The word ''governor'' can also refer to an administrator and/or supervisor (individually or collectively, see Board of Governors); the Governor of a national bank often holds ministerial rank.

Federal Reserve Board of Governors

Governor of the Bank of Canada

Governor of the National Bank of Romania

List of governors of national banks of Serbia and Yugoslavia

See also[link]

Bey

Governor-General of Finland

Lieutenant governor

Minister-president

Viceroy

References[link]

Category:Government occupations Category:Gubernatorial titles Category:Positions of authority Category:Governance of the British Empire

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Birthname	James Richard Perry
Order	47th
Office	Governor of Texas
Lieutenant	Bill RatliffDavid Dewhurst
Term start	December 21, 2000
Predecessor	George W. Bush
Order2	39th
Office2	Lieutenant Governor of Texas
Term start2	January 19, 1999
Term end2	December 21, 2000
Governor2	George W. Bush
Predecessor2	Bob Bullock
Successor2	Bill Ratliff
Office3	9th Commissioner of Agriculture of Texas
Governor3	Ann RichardsGeorge W. Bush
Term start3	January 15, 1991
Term end3	January 19, 1999
Predecessor3	Jim Hightower
Successor3	Susan Combs
Office4	Member of the House of Representatives of Texasfrom District 64
Term start4	1985
Term end4	1991
Predecessor4	Joe Hanna
Successor4	John Cook
Birth date	March 04, 1950
Birth place	Paint Creek, Texas
Residence	West Austin, Texas(Temporary residence since 2007, during repairs to the Texas Governor's Mansion)
Spouse	Anita Thigpen
Children	GriffinSydney
Alma mater	Texas A&M; University (B.S.)
Party	Republican Party (since 1989)Democratic Party (until 1989)
Profession	Military OfficerFarmerPolitician
Religion	Christianity (evangelical)
Signature	Rick Perry signature.svg
Branch	United States Air Force
Serviceyears	1972–1977
Unit	772nd Tactical Airlift Squadron
Rank	Captain
Website	www.governor.state.tx.us }}

James Richard "Rick" Perry (born March 4, 1950) is the 47th and current Governor of Texas. Perry, a Republican, was elected Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 1998 and assumed the governorship in December 2000 when then-governor George W. Bush resigned to become President of the United States. Perry was elected to full gubernatorial terms in 2002, 2006 and 2010. With a tenure in office to date of , Perry is the longest continuously serving current U.S. governor, and the second longest serving current U.S. governor—after Terry Branstad of Iowa. Perry served as Chairman of the Republican Governors Association in 2008 (succeeding Sonny Perdue of Georgia) and again in 2011. Perry is the longest serving governor in Texas state history. As a result, he is the only governor in modern Texas history to have appointed at least one person to every eligible state office, board, or commission position (as well as to several elected offices to which the governor can appoint someone to fill an unexpired term, such as six of the nine current members of the Texas Supreme Court).

Perry won the Texas 2010 Republican gubernatorial primary election, defeating U.S. Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison and former Wharton County Republican Party Chairwoman and businesswoman Debra Medina. In the 2010 Texas gubernatorial election, Perry won a third term by defeating former Houston mayor Bill White and Kathie Glass.

On August 13, 2011, Perry announced in South Carolina that he was running for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in the 2012 presidential election. On January 19, 2012, Perry announced he would be suspending his campaign for the Republican nomination, and endorsed Newt Gingrich.

Early life, education, and military service[link]

A fifth-generation Texan, Perry was born in Paint Creek, about north of Abilene in West Texas, to ranchers Joseph Ray Perry and the former Amelia June Holt. Perry's ancestry is almost entirely English, dating as far back as the original thirteen colonies. His family has been in Texas since before the Texan Revolution.

His father, a Democrat, was a long-time Haskell County commissioner and school board member. Perry has said that his interest in politics probably began in November 1961, when his father took him to the funeral of U.S. Representative Sam Rayburn (D-TX), who during his long public career served as speaker of the Texas House for a short time at the age of 29 and then later for 17 years as the Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Perry was in the Boy Scouts (BSA) and earned the rank of Eagle Scout; his son, Griffin, would later become an Eagle Scout as well. The BSA has honored Perry with the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award.

Perry graduated from Paint Creek High School in 1968. He then attended Texas A&M; University, where he was a member of the Corps of Cadets, a member of the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity, was elected senior class social secretary, and was also elected as one of A&M;'s five yell leaders (a popular Texas A&M; tradition analogous to male cheerleaders). Perry graduated in 1972 with a Bachelor of Science in animal science.

Perry said that the Corps of Cadets gave him the discipline to complete his animal sciences degree and earn a commission in the Air Force. In a 1989 interview he said that "I was probably a bit of a free spirit, not particularly structured real well for life outside of a military regime, I would have not lasted at Texas Tech or the University of Texas. I would have hit the fraternity scene and lasted about one semester." Perry was a prankster in college: he once placed live chickens in the closet of an upperclassman during Christmas break and used M-80 firecrackers to prank students using the toilet.

In the early 1970s, Perry interned during several summers with the Southwestern Company, as a door-to-door book salesman. "I count my time working for Dortch Oldham [President of the Southwestern Company] as one of the most important formative experiences of my life," Perry said in 2010. "There is nothing that tests your commitment to a goal like getting a few doors closed in your face." He said that "Mr. Oldham taught legions of young people to communicate quickly, clearly and with passion, a lesson that has served me well in my life since then."

Upon graduation in 1972, Perry was commissioned in the Air Force and completed pilot training in February 1974. He was then assigned as a C-130 pilot to the 772nd Tactical Airlift Squadron at Dyess Air Force Base. Perry's duties included two-month overseas rotations at RAF Mildenhall in England and Rhein-Main Air Base in Germany. His missions included a 1974 U.S. State Department drought relief effort in Mali, Mauritania and Chad, and two years later, earthquake relief in Guatemala. He left the Air Force in 1977 with the rank of captain, returned to Texas, and went into business farming cotton with his father.

Early political career[link]

Texas Legislature [link]

In 1984, Perry was elected to the Texas House of Representatives as a Democrat from district 64, which included his home county of Haskell. He served on the House Appropriations and Calendars committees during his three two-year terms in office. He befriended fellow freshman state representative Lena Guerrero of Austin, a staunch liberal Democrat who endorsed Perry's reelection bid in 2006 on personal, rather than philosophical, grounds.

Perry was part of the "Pit Bulls", a group of Appropriations members who sat on the lower dais in the committee room (or "pit") who pushed for austere state budgets during the 1980s. At one point, ''The Dallas Morning News'' named him one of the ten most effective members of the legislature.

In 1987, Perry voted for a $5.7 billion tax increase proposed by Republican governor Bill Clements. Perry supported Al Gore in the 1988 Democratic presidential primaries and worked in an unspecified capacity for Gore's campaign in Texas. In 1989, Perry announced that he was switching parties, becoming a Republican.

Agriculture Commissioner [link]

In 1990, as a newly minted Republican, Perry challenged Jim Hightower, the incumbent Democratic Agriculture Commissioner. Hightower had worked on behalf of Jesse Jackson for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988, while Perry had supported U.S. Senator Al Gore of Tennessee.

During 1990, Hightower's office was embroiled in a FBI investigation into corruption and bribery. Three aides were convicted in 1993 of using public funds for political fundraising, although Hightower himself was not found to be involved in the wrongdoings. Perry narrowly defeated Hightower in November 1990.

As Agriculture Commissioner, Perry was responsible for promoting the sale of Texas farm produce to other states and foreign nations, and for supervising the calibration of weights and measures, such as gasoline pumps and grocery store scales.

In April 1993, Perry, while serving as Texas agriculture commissioner, expressed support for the effort to reform the nation's health care, describing it as "most commendable". The health care plan, first revealed in September, was ultimately unsuccessful due to Republican congressional opposition. In 2005, after being questioned on the issue by a potential opponent in the Republican governor primary, Perry said that he expressed his support only in order to get Clinton to pay more attention to rural health care.

In 1994, Perry was reelected Agriculture Commissioner by a large margin, getting 2,546,287 votes (62 percent) to Democrat Marvin Gregory's 1,479,692 (36 percent). Libertarian Clyde L. Garland received the remaining 85,836 votes (2 percent). Gregory, a chicken farmer from Sulphur Springs, Texas, was on the Texas Agricultural Finance Authority with Perry in the early nineties, as a Republican. He became a Democrat before running against Perry in 1994.

Lieutenant Governor [link]

In 1998, Perry chose not to seek a third term as Agriculture Commissioner, running instead for Lieutenant Governor to succeed the retiring Democrat Bob Bullock. During this election, Rick Perry had a notable falling out with his previous top political strategist Karl Rove, which began the much-reported rivalry between the Bush and Perry camps. Perry polled 1,858,837 votes (50.04 percent) to the 1,790,106 (48.19 percent) cast for Democrat John Sharp of Victoria, who had relinquished the Comptroller's position after two terms to seek the lieutenant governorship. Libertarian Anthony Garcia polled another 65,150 votes (1.75 percent). Perry thus became the state's first Republican lieutenant governor since Reconstruction, taking office on January 19, 1999.

Governor of Texas [link]

thumb|President George W. Bush and Texas Governor Rick Perry shake hands after a question and answer session at the Port Arthur airport. Port Arthur was hit hard by Hurricane Rita.Perry assumed the office of governor on December 21, 2000, following the resignation of George W. Bush—who was preparing to become President of the United States. He won the office in his own right in the 2002 gubernatorial election, where he received 57.80% of votes to businessman Tony Sanchez's 39.96%. He was re-elected in the 2006 gubernatorial election against three major opponents, polling 39% of votes against runner-up Chris Bell with 29.8%. In the 2010 gubernatorial election, Perry became the first Texas governor to be elected to three four-year terms, polling 54.97% of votes to Bill White's 42.48%.

In his three gubernatorial campaigns, Perry received hard-money campaign contributions of $102 million, half of which came from 204 donors.

In the 2001 legislative session, Perry set a record for his use of the veto, rejecting 82 acts, more than any other governor in any single legislative session in the history of the state since Reconstruction.

Fiscal policies[link]

In his presidential campaign, Perry has highlighted the economic success Texas achieved under his governorship, although the true success of his policies has been questioned. A proclaimed proponent of fiscal conservatism, Perry has often campaigned on job growth and tax issues, such as his opposition to creating a state income tax. Perry refused in 2002 to promise not to raise taxes as governor, and in the following years did propose or approve various tax and debt increases. In 2009, Perry signed Grover Norquist's pledge to "oppose and veto any and all efforts to increase taxes".

Texas began borrowing money in 2003 to pay for roads and will owe $17.3 billion by the end of 2012, increasing total state debt, from $13.4 billion in 2001 to $37.8 billion in 2011. The state's public finance authority sold $2 billion in bonds for unemployment benefits, and it's authorized to sell $1.5 billion more if necessary. Texas federal borrowing topped $1.6 billion in October 2010, before the bond sales. Texans voted November 8, 2011 for a Water Works Bill with an additional $6 billion of debt and against new tax breaks for landowners. A Republican on the Natural Resources Committee laments “we couldn’t get the votes” which would break Perry's pledge not to raise taxes.

In 2003, Perry signed legislation that created the Texas Enterprise Fund, which has since given $435 million in grants to businesses. The New York Times reported that many of the companies receiving grants, or their chief executives, have made contributions to Perry's campaigns or to the Republican Governors Association.

Health[link]

As Governor, Perry has been an outspoken opponent of federal health-care reform proposals and of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, describing the latter as "socialism on American soil". Perry's focus in Texas has been on tort reform, signing a bill in 2003 which restricted non-economic damages in medical malpractice judgments. Perry touted this approach in his Presidential campaign, although independent analysts have concluded that it has failed to increase the supply of physicians or limit health-care costs in Texas.

During Perry's governorship, Texas rose from second to first among states with the highest proportion of uninsured residents at 26%, and had the lowest level of access to prenatal care in the U.S. Perry and the Republican-led state legislature have cut Medicaid spending and made it more difficult to enroll in the program, which currently covers one-third of Texas children. The cost of caring for uninsured Texans has been borne by those with insurance, leading to substantial rises in insurance premiums and leading Texas to rank next-to-last among states in terms of affordability of health insurance. The ''Los Angeles Times'' wrote that under Perry, "working Texans increasingly have been priced out of private healthcare while the state's safety net has withered."

Perry's office has argued that Texas represents a model private-sector approach to health-care. His spokeswoman stated that "Texas does provide an adequate safety net to those truly in need... and many individuals simply choose not to purchase healthcare coverage."

Perry is pro-life and has signed multiple bills creating new rules or restrictions for abortion procedures and funding for such. These bills include a May 2010 law requiring that a sonogram be performed prior to every abortion, and that the practitioner discuss the sonogram images with the patient except in limited cases where the patient may waive the explanation. In December 2011, Perry said he had undergone a "transformation" and now opposed all abortions, including in cases of rape and incest. The next day he clarified that he would allow an exception for abortions that would save a mother's life.

In February 2007, Perry issued an executive order mandating that Texas girls receive the HPV vaccine, which protects against some strains of the human papilloma virus, a contributing factor to some forms of cervical cancer. Following the move, news outlets reported various apparent financial connections between Perry and the vaccine's manufacturer, Merck. Merck's political action committee has contributed $28,500 since 2001 to Perry's campaigns. The order was criticized by some parents and social conservatives, and a lawsuit was filed later that month. In May 2007, the Texas Legislature passed a bill undoing the order; Perry did not veto the bill, saying the veto would have been overruled, but blamed lawmakers who supported the bill for the deaths of future cancer victims.

In 2011, Governor Perry both had adult stem cell surgery himself, in Houston by Dr. Jones, and started "laying the groundwork" for the commercialization of the adult stem cell industry in Texas.

Religion[link]

Perry grew up in the Methodist church, until 2010 when he began attending Lake Hills Church in Austin. In 2006, Perry stated that he believes in the inerrancy of the Bible and that those who do not accept Jesus as their savior will go to hell. He later clarified, "I don't know that there's any human being that has the ability to interpret what God and his final decision-making is going to be." In his 2008 book ''On My Honor'', Perry expressed his views on the Establishment Clause and the Free Exercise Clause. "Let's be clear: I don't believe government, which taxes people regardless of their faith, should espouse a specific faith. I also don't think we should allow a small minority of atheists to sanitize our civil dialogue on religious references." In June 2011, Perry proclaimed August 6 as a Day of Prayer and Fasting, inviting other governors to join him in a prayer meeting hosted by the American Family Association in Houston. The event was criticized as going beyond prayer and fasting to include launching Perry's presidential campaign.

Perry has called himself "a firm believer in intelligent design as a matter of faith and intellect", and has expressed support for its teaching alongside evolution in Texas schools, but has also said that "educators and local school officials, not the governor, should determine science curriculum."

Education[link]

Perry has repeatedly attacked the Robin Hood plan to provide court-mandated equitable school financing for all school districts in the state. In 2005, following rejection of Perry's proposal to replace the Robin Hood plan, Perry vetoed all funding for public schools for the 2007–2008 biennium, saying he would not "approve an education budget that shortchanges teacher salary increases, textbooks, education technology, and education reforms. And I cannot let $2 billion sit in some bank account when it can go directly to the classroom." Following a second rejection of Perry's bill, Perry asked John Sharp to head a task force charged with preparing a bipartisan education plan, which was subsequently adopted.

In 2001, Perry expressed his pride in the enactment of the statute extending in-state tuition to undocumented immigrants who meet Texas' residency requirements. It also required the undocumented students to pledge to apply for permanent residency or citizenship if this became a possibility for them.

LGBT issues[link]

In 2002, Perry described the Texas same-sex anti-sodomy law as "appropriate". The United States Supreme Court's civil rights decision in ''Lawrence v. Texas'' struck down the statute Perry referred to the following year for violating the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Perry supported the 2005 ballot proposition which amended the Texas constitution by defining marriage as "only a union between a man and a woman" and prohibiting the state from creating or recognizing "any legal status identical or similar to marriage". In 2011, after New York legalized same-sex marriage, Perry stated that it was their right to do so under the principle of states' rights delineated in the 10th Amendment. A spokesman later reiterated Perry's support for a federal constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, saying that position was not inconsistent since an amendment would require approval by three-fourths of the states.

In his first book, ''On My Honor'', published in 2008, Perry drew a parallel between homosexuality and alcoholism, writing that he is "no expert on the 'nature versus nurture' debate", but that gays should simply choose abstinence. During the 2012 presidential campaign, he criticized the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell".

Crime[link]

Perry's campaigns for lieutenant governor and governor focused on a tough stance on crime. He has supported block grants for crime programs.

Jeff L. Blackburn, chief counsel of the Innocence Project of Texas, said of Perry that "He has done more good than any other governor we've ever had ... unless, of course, it involves the death penalty. On the death penalty, Rick Perry has a profound mental block".

In 2007, Perry signed a law ending automatic arrest for marijuana possession.

Death penalty[link]

Perry supports the death penalty. In June 2002, he vetoed a ban on the execution of mentally retarded inmates. As of August 10, 2011, Texas has carried out 234 executions since Rick Perry became governor. Cases in which Perry has been criticized for his lack of intervention include those of Cameron Todd Willingham, Frances Newton, and Mexican nationals José Medellín and Humberto Leal Garcia.

Perry commuted the death sentence of Kenneth Foster, who was convicted of murder despite evidence that he was only present at the scene of the crime. Perry also pardoned Tyrone Brown, who was sentenced to life in a Texas maximum security prison for smoking marijuana while on probation. Perry's actions in both these cases were following the recommendation of the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles.

Infrastructure[link]

In 2001, Perry proposed the Trans-Texas Corridor, a $145+ billion-dollar project that would build multi-lane highways, rail lines and data lines from Oklahoma to Mexico, and from east to west in southern Texas. Instead of paying for the project with taxes, Perry proposed that it be partially financed, partially built and wholly operated by private contractors, who would subsequently receive all toll proceeds. All of Perry's gubernatorial opponents opposed the corridor project, as did the 2006 state party platforms of both the Democratic and Republican parties. After much contentious debate between supporters and opponents, an official decision of "no action" was issued by the Federal Highway Administration on July 20, 2010, formally ending the project.

Gun ownership[link]

Perry has an A+ rating from the National Rifle Association. He possesses a Concealed Handgun License (CHL) and has signed a number of bills that increased CHL access.

2012 presidential campaign [link]

Until 2011, Perry persistently denied aspirations to higher office; he was originally included on the 2012 Presidential Straw Poll ballot at the Values Voter Summit in September 2009, but his name was removed at his own request. In April 2008 while appearing as a guest on CNBC's ''Kudlow & Company'', he specifically stated that he would not agree to serve as Vice President in a McCain administration, stating that he already had "the best job in the world" as governor of Texas. Further, during a Republican gubernatorial debate in January 2010, when asked if he would commit to serving out his term if re-elected, he replied that "the place hasn't been made yet" where he would rather serve than the governor of Texas. In December 2010, when asked if he was a "definite maybe" to run for President in 2012, he replied, "a definite no, brother".

On May 27, 2011, he said he is "going to think about" running for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination after the close of the Texas legislative session. Perry said in a response to a question from a reporter, "but I think about a lot of things," he added with a grin.

On August 11, a Perry spokesman said that he will be running for President in 2012, with plans to announce his formal entry into the race the next day, August 12. Perry himself confirmed it on a visit to KVUE, the ABC affiliate in Austin. As the Associated Press bulletin announcing his entry into the race came across the wire, Perry signed and dated a printed copy of the bulletin.

On August 13, Perry officially announced that he will be running for president.

In October 2011, the ''Washington Post'' reported that Perry's family leases a hunting camp once called "Niggerhead". According to some local residents interviewed by the ''Post'', the Perrys used the camp for years before painting over a large rock with that name on it, which stands at an entrance to the area, and during this time Perry hosted friends and supporters at the camp. Perry's campaign disputed the claims, stating that the Perrys painted over the rock almost immediately after acquiring a lease on the property in 1983.

On December 6, Perry released a Presidential campaign video on YouTube called "Strong" discussing his religious beliefs, as well as criticism of Obama's governance. The video states "there's something wrong in this country when gays can serve openly in the military, but your kids can't openly celebrate Christmas." The video has been largely criticised in the on-line community and has received over 750,000 dislikes on YouTube.

Perry announced on January 19, 2012, that he would be dropping out of the 2012 Presidential Race, publicly endorsing Newt Gingrich. However on April 25, 2012, Perry endorsed Mitt Romney after Gingrich announced that he drop out a week later.

Political views [link]

''See'': Political positions of Rick Perry

Publications [link]

Rick Perry has written two books: ''On My Honor: Why the American Values of the Boy Scouts are Worth Fighting For'' was published in February 2008. In his book, Perry celebrates the positive impact of the organization on the youth of America and criticizes the ACLU for its legal actions against the Boy Scouts of America. His second book, ''Fed Up! Our Fight to Save America from Washington'' was published in November 2010. Perry's second book discusses his support for limited central government.

Perry has also written a lecture about the role of the federal government and the military in disaster management titled ''Federalizing Disaster Response''.

Personal life [link]

In 1982, Perry married Anita Thigpen, his childhood sweetheart whom he had known since elementary school. They have two grown children, Griffin and Sydney. Anita Perry attended West Texas State University and earned a degree in nursing. She has spearheaded a number of health-related initiatives such as the Anita Thigpen Perry Endowment at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, which focuses on nutrition, cardiovascular disease, health education, and early childhood development. Anita has also helped develop and host the Texas Conference for Women.

Electoral history [link]

References [link]

External links [link]

Governor Rick Perry ''official state site''

Rick Perry for President ''official presidential campaign site''

Campaign finance reports and data at the Federal Election Commission

Financial information at OpenSecrets.org.......

;National and international media coverage

Rick Perry category at ''CNN

Rick Perry page at ''Fox News''

Rick Perry category at ''The New York Times''

Rick Perry section at ''The Wall Street Journal''

Rick Perry index at ''The Economist

Rick Perry collection at ''The (London) Guardian

Rick Perry directory at ''The Open Directory Project''

;Local media coverage

The Perry Trap at ''The Austin Chronicle''

Perry Watch at ''The Dallas Morning News''

Rick Perry 2012 at the ''Fort Worth Star-Telegram''

Rick Perry at the ''Houston Chronicle''

The Perry Trove at the ''Texas Monthly''

The Perry Trail at ''The Texas Observer''

Rick Perry at ''The Texas Tribune''

;Governor

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Category:1950 births Category:Agriculture commissioners of Texas Category:American evangelicals Category:American farmers Category:American people of English descent Category:American Methodists Category:American military personnel of the Vietnam War Category:Article Feedback 5 Additional Articles Category:Conservatism in the United States Category:Distinguished Eagle Scouts Category:Federal Emergency Management Agency critics Category:Governors of Texas Category:Lieutenant Governors of Texas Category:Living people Category:Members of the Texas House of Representatives Category:People from Haskell County, Texas Category:Republican Party state governors of the United States Category:Texas A&M; University alumni Category:Texas Republicans Category:United States Air Force officers Category:United States presidential candidates, 2012

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Birth name	Willard Mitt Romney
Order	70th
Office	Governor of Massachusetts
Lieutenant	Kerry Healey
Term start	January 2, 2003
Term end	January 4, 2007
Predecessor	Jane Swift (Acting)
Successor	Deval Patrick
Birth date	March 12, 1947
Birth place	Detroit, Michigan, U.S.
Party	Republican
Residence	Belmont, MassachusettsWolfeboro, New HampshireLa Jolla, California
Spouse
Children	Taggart (b. 1970) Matthew (b. 1971) Joshua (b. 1975) Benjamin (b. 1978) Craig (b. 1981)
Alma mater
Religion	The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon)
Blank1	Positions
Data1	Co-founder, Bain Capital (1984–1999)CEO, Bain & Company (1991–1992)CEO, 2002 Winter Olympics Organizing Committee (1999–2002)
Signature	Mitt Romney Signature.svg
Signature alt	Signature "Mitt Romney", first name more legible than last name
Website	MittRomney.com }}

Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American businessman and the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party for President of the United States in the 2012 election. He was the 70th Governor of Massachusetts (2003–07).

The son of Lenore and George W. Romney (Governor of Michigan, 1963–69), he was raised in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. In 1966, after one year at Stanford University, he left the United States to spend thirty months in France as a Mormon missionary. In 1969, he married Ann Davies, and the couple had five children together. In 1971, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Brigham Young University and, in 1975, a joint Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration from Harvard University as a Baker Scholar. He entered the management consulting industry, which in 1977, led to a position at Bain & Company. Later serving as Chief Executive Officer, he helped bring the company out of financial crisis. In 1984, he co-founded the spin-off Bain Capital, a private equity investment firm that became highly profitable and one of the largest such firms in the nation. His net worth is estimated at $190–250 million, wealth that has helped fund his political campaigns. Active in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he served as bishop of his ward and later stake president in his area near Boston. He ran as the Republican candidate in the 1994 U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts, losing to long-time incumbent Ted Kennedy. In 1999, he was hired as President and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the 2002 Winter Olympics and Paralympics; and he helped turn the fiscally troubled games into a success.

He was elected Governor of Massachusetts in 2002 but did not seek re-election in 2006. During his term he presided over a series of spending cuts and increases in fees that eliminated a projected $1.5 billion deficit. He also signed into law the Massachusetts health care reform legislation, the first of its kind in the nation, which provided near-universal health insurance access via state-level subsidies and individual mandates.

Romney ran for the Republican nomination in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, winning several primaries and caucuses but losing the nomination to John McCain. In the following years, he gave speeches and raised campaign funds on behalf of his fellow Republicans. In June 2011, he announced that he would seek the 2012 Republican presidential nomination; as of May 2012, he has won enough caucuses and primaries to become the party's presumptive nominee.

Early life and education[link]

Heritage and youth[link]

Willard Mitt Romney was born at Harper Hospital in Detroit, Michigan, the youngest child of George W. Romney, a self-made man who by 1948 had become an automobile executive, and Lenore Romney (née LaFount), an aspiring actress turned homemaker. His mother was a native of Logan, Utah, and his father was born in a Mormon colony in Chihuahua, Mexico, to American parents. He is of primarily English descent, and also has more distant Scottish and German ancestry. He is a fifth-generation member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). A great-great-grandfather, Miles Romney, converted to the faith in its first decade, and another great-great-grandfather, Parley P. Pratt, was an early leader in the church during the same time.

Romney was preceded in birth by three siblings: Margo Lynn, Jane LaFount, and G. Scott. Mitt followed after a gap of nearly six years. He was named after family friend, hotel magnate J. Willard Marriott, and his father's cousin Milton "Mitt" Romney, a former quarterback for the Chicago Bears.|group="nb"}} In 1953, the family moved from Detroit to the affluent suburb of Bloomfield Hills. In 1954, his father became the chairmen and CEO of American Motors, a company he helped avoid bankruptcy, and return to profitability. By the time Mitt was twelve, his father had become a nationally known figure in print and on television, and Mitt idolized him.

Romney attended public elementary schools until the seventh grade, when he began commuting to Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills, a traditional private boys' preparatory school where he was one of only a few Mormons and where many students came from backgrounds even more privileged than he. He was not particularly athletic and at first did not excel academically. During his sophomore year he participated in the 1962 campaign in which his father was elected Governor of Michigan. When his parents moved to the state capitol as part of George Romney taking office, Mitt took up residence at Cranbrook's Stevens Hall. George Romney was re-elected twice; Mitt worked for him as an intern in the governor's office, and was present at the 1964 Republican National Convention when his moderate father battled conservative party nominee Barry Goldwater over issues of civil rights and ideological extremism. During these years, Romney had a steady set of chores and summer jobs, including working as a security guard at a Chrysler plant.

At Cranbrook Romney was a manager for the ice hockey team and a member of the pep squad, and during his final year joined the cross country running team. He belonged to eleven school organizations and school clubs, and started the Blue Key Club boosters group. During his final year at Cranbook, he improved academically, but was still not a star pupil. He won an award for those "whose contributions to school life are often not fully recognized through already existing channels". Romney was involved in many pranks. Romney was also arrested in 1981 while at a family outing at Lake Cochituate in Massachusetts. According to Romney, a ranger from Cochituate State Park told him his motorboat had an insufficiently visible license number and he would face a $50 fine if he took the boat onto the lake. Disagreeing about the license and wanting to continue the outing, Romney took it out anyway, saying he would pay the fine. The angry officer then arrested him for disorderly conduct. The charges were dropped several days later after Romney threatened to sue the officer and the state for false arrest.|group="nb"}}

In March of his senior year, he began dating Ann Davies, two years his younger, whom he had first met in elementary school; she attended the private Kingswood School, the sister school to Cranbrook. The two informally agreed to marriage around the time of his June 1965 graduation.

University, France mission, marriage and children: 1965–1975[link]

Romney attended Stanford University for a year, where he worked as a night security guard in order to pay for trips home to see Ann. Although the campus and the surrounding area was becoming radicalized with the beginnings of 1960s social and political movements, he kept a well-groomed appearance and participated in pre-Big Game actions designed to protect the Stanford Axe. He successfully rushed the Phi Kappa Sigma fraternity. In May 1966, he was part of a counter-protest against a group staging a sit-in in the university administration building in opposition to draft status tests.

In July 1966, he left for a thirty-month stay in France as a Mormon missionary, a traditional rite of passage that his father and many other relatives had volunteered for. He arrived in Le Havre with ideas about how to change and promote the French Mission, while facing physical and economic deprivation in their cramped quarters. Rules against drinking, smoking, and dating were strictly enforced. Most individual Mormon missionaries do not gain many converts, and Romney was no exception: he later estimated ten to twenty for his entire mission. The nominally Catholic but secular, wine-loving French people were especially resistant to a religion that prohibits alcohol. He became demoralized, and later recalled it as the only time when "most of what I was trying to do was rejected." In Nantes, he suffered a bruised jaw while defending two female missionaries who were being bothered by a group of local rugby players. He continued to work hard; having grown up in Michigan rather than the more insular Utah world, Romney was better able to interact with the French than other missionaries. He was promoted to zone leader in Bordeaux in early 1968, then in the spring of that year became assistant to the mission president in Paris, the highest position for a missionary. In the Mission Home in Paris he enjoyed palace-like accommodations. Romney's support for the U.S. role in the Vietnam War was only reinforced when the French greeted him with hostility over the matter and he debated them in return. He witnessed the May 1968 general strike and student uprisings and was upset by the breakdown in social order.

In June 1968, an automobile he was driving in southern France was hit by another vehicle, seriously injuring him and killing one of his passengers, the wife of the mission president. As they drove through the village of Bernos-Beaulac, a Mercedes that was passing a truck missed a curve and swerved into the opposite lane hitting the Citroën DS Romney was driving in a head-on collision. Trapped between the steering wheel and door, the unconscious and seriously injured Romney had to be pried from the car; a French police officer mistakenly wrote ''Il est mort'' in his passport. The wife of the mission president was killed and other passengers were seriously injured as well. George Romney relied on his friend Sargent Shriver, the U.S. Ambassador to France, to go to the local hospital and discover that his son had survived. Romney, who was not at fault in the accident, had suffered broken ribs, a fractured arm, a concussion, and facial injuries, but recovered quickly without needing surgery. The French police say that they have no records of the incident because such records are routinely destroyed after 10 years.|name="nb-acc"|group="nb"}} Romney, who was not at fault in the accident, became co-acting president of a mission demoralized and disorganized by the May civil disturbances and by the car accident. He rallied and motivated the others and they met an ambitious goal of 200 baptisms for the year, the most for the mission in a decade. By the end of his stint in December 1968, he was overseeing the work of 175 fellow members. Romney developed a lifelong affection for France and its people, and speaks French. The experience in the country instilled in him a belief that life is fragile and that he needed seriousness of purpose. It also represented a crucible, after having been an indifferent Mormon growing up: "On a mission, your faith in Jesus Christ either evaporates or it becomes much deeper ... For me it became much deeper."

While he was away, Ann Davies had converted to the Mormon faith, guided by George Romney, and had begun attending Brigham Young University (BYU). Mitt was nervous that she had been wooed by others while he was away, and she had indeed started dating popular campus figure Kim S. Cameron and had sent Romney in France a "Dear John letter", greatly upsetting him; he wrote to her to in an attempt to win her back. At their first meeting following Romney's return they reconnected, and decided to get married immediately but agreed to wait three months to appease their parents. At Ann's request, Romney began attending Brigham Young too, in February 1969. He later recounted that he had planned to attend BYU to convince Ann to marry him, then the couple planned to transfer together back to Stanford, but in the end, they enjoyed BYU and decided to stay.|name="nb-byu"|group="nb"}} The couple were married on March 21, 1969, in a civil ceremony in Bloomfield Hills. The following day, the couple flew to Utah for a wedding ceremony at the Salt Lake Temple.

Romney had missed much of the tumultuous American anti-Vietnam War movement while away, and was surprised to learn that his father had turned against the effort during his unsuccessful 1968 presidential campaign. Regarding the military draft, Romney had initially received two 2-S student deferments, then, like most Mormon missionaries, a 4-D ministerial deferment while in France, and then two more student deferments. When those ran out, his high number in the December 1969 draft lottery (300) ensured he would not be selected.

At culturally conservative BYU, he remained isolated from much of the upheaval of the era, and did not join in protests against the war or against the LDS Church's policy at the time of denying full membership to blacks. He became president of, and an innovative fundraiser for, the all-male Cougar Club booster organization and showed a new-found discipline in his studies. In his senior year, he took leave to work as driver and advance man for his mother Lenore Romney's eventually unsuccessful 1970 campaign for U.S. Senator from Michigan; together, they visited all 83 Michigan counties. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in English with highest honors in 1971, and gave commencement addresses to both the College of Humanities and to the whole of BYU.|group="nb"}}

The Romneys' first son, Taggart (known as "Tagg"), was born in 1970 while they were undergraduates at BYU and living in a basement apartment. Ann subsequently gave birth to Matthew ("Matt", 1971), Joshua ("Josh", 1975), Benjamin ("Ben", 1978), and Craig (1981). Her work as a homemaker would enable her husband to pursue his career.

Romney still wanted to pursue a business path, but his father, by now serving in President Richard Nixon's cabinet as United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, advised him that a law degree would be valuable to his career. Thus he became one of only fifteen students to enroll at the recently created joint Juris Doctor/Master of Business Administration four-year program coordinated between Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School. Fellow students considered him guilelessly optimistic, noting his solid work ethic and buttoned-down demeanor and appearance. He readily adapted to the business school's pragmatic, data-driven case study method of teaching, participated in class well, and led a study group whom he pushed to get all A's. He had a different social experience from most of his classmates, since he lived in a Belmont, Massachusetts, house with Ann and two children. He was non-ideological and did not involve himself in the political or social issues of the day. He graduated in 1975 ''cum laude'' from the law school, in the top third of that class, and was named a Baker Scholar for graduating in the top five percent of his business school class.

Business career[link]

Management consulting[link]

Romney was recruited by several firms and chose to remain in Massachusetts to work for Boston Consulting Group (BCG), reasoning that working as a management consultant to a variety of companies would better prepare him for a future position as a chief executive. He was part of a 1970s wave of top graduates who chose to go into consulting rather than join a major company directly. His legal and business education proved useful in his job while he applied BCG principles such as the growth-share matrix. He was viewed as having a bright future there.

In 1977, he was hired away by Bain & Company, a management consulting firm in Boston that had been formed a few years earlier by Bill Bain and other former BCG employees. Bain would later say of the thirty-year-old Romney, "He had the appearance of confidence of a guy who was maybe ten years older." With Bain & Company, Romney learned what writers and business analysts have dubbed the "Bain way", which consisted of immersing the firm in each client's business, and not just issuing recommendations but staying with the company until changes were put into place. Romney became a vice president of the firm in 1978, and worked with clients such as the Monsanto Company, Outboard Marine Corporation, Burlington Industries, and Corning Incorporated. Within a few years, he was one of Bain & Company's best consultants and was sought after by clients over more senior partners.

Private equity[link]

Romney was restless for a company of his own to run, and in 1983, Bill Bain offered him the chance to head a new venture that would buy into companies, have them benefit from Bain techniques, and then reap higher rewards than consulting fees. He initially refrained from accepting the offer, and Bain re-arranged the terms in a complicated partnership structure so that there was no financial or professional risk to Romney. Thus, in 1984, Romney left Bain & Company to co-found the spin-off private equity investment firm, Bain Capital. In the face of skepticism from potential investors, Bain and Romney spent a year raising the $37 million in funds needed to start the new operation, which had fewer than ten employees. As general partner of the new firm, Romney spent little money on costs such as office appearance, and saw weak spots in so many potential deals that by 1986, few had been done. At first, Bain Capital focused on venture capital opportunities. Their first big success was a 1986 investment to help start Staples Inc., after founder Thomas G. Stemberg convinced Romney of the market size for office supplies and Romney convinced others; Bain Capital eventually reaped a nearly sevenfold return on its investment, and Romney sat on the Staples board of directors for over a decade.

Romney soon switched Bain Capital's focus from startups to the relatively new business of leveraged buyouts: buying existing firms with money mostly borrowed against their assets, partnering with existing management to apply the "Bain way" to their operations (rather than the hostile takeovers practiced in other leverage buyout scenarios), and selling them off in a few years. Existing CEOs were offered large equity stakes in the process, owing to Bain Capital's belief in the emerging agency theory that CEOs should be bound to maximizing shareholder value rather than other goals. Bain Capital lost most of its money in many of its early leveraged buyouts, but then started finding deals that made large returns. The firm invested in or acquired Accuride, Brookstone, Domino's Pizza, Sealy Corporation, Sports Authority, and Artisan Entertainment, as well as lesser-known companies in the industrial and medical sectors. He ran Bain Capital for fourteen years, during which time the firm's average annual internal rate of return on realized investments was 113 percent. Much of this profit was earned from a relatively small number of deals; Bain Capital's overall success–to–failure ratio was about even.

Less an entrepreneur than an executive running an investment operation, Romney was skilled at presenting and selling the deals the company made. The firm initially gave a cut of its profits to Bain & Company, but Romney persuaded Bain to give that up. Within Bain Capital, Romney spread profits from deals widely within the firm to keep people motivated, often keeping less than ten percent for himself. Viewed as a fair manager, he received considerable loyalty from the firm's members. Romney's wary instincts were still in force at times, and he was generally data-driven and averse to risk. He wanted to drop a Bain Capital hedge fund that initially lost money, but other partners prevailed and it eventually gained billions. He also personally opted out of the Artisan Entertainment deal, not wanting to profit from a studio that produced R-rated films. Romney was on the board of directors of Damon Corporation, a medical testing company later found guilty of defrauding the government; Bain Capital tripled its investment before selling off the company, and the fraud was discovered by the new owners (Romney was never implicated). In some cases, Romney had little involvement with a company once acquired.

Bain Capital's leveraged buyouts sometimes led to layoffs, either soon after acquisition or later after the firm had left. How jobs added compared to those lost due to these investments and buyouts is unknown, due to a lack of records and Bain Capital's penchant for privacy on behalf of itself and its investors. In any case, maximizing the value of acquired companies and the return to Bain's investors, not job creation, was the firm's fundamental goal, as it was for most private equity operations. Bain Capital's acquisition of Ampad exemplified a deal where it profited handsomely from early payments and management fees, even though the subject company itself ended up going into bankruptcy. Dade Behring was another case where Bain Capital received an eightfold return on its investment, but the company itself was saddled with debt and laid off over a thousand employees before Bain Capital exited (the company subsequently went into bankruptcy, with more layoffs, before recovering and prospering). Bain was among the private equity firms that took the most fees in such cases.

In 1990, Romney was asked to return to Bain & Company, which was facing financial collapse. He was announced as its new CEO in January 1991 but drew only a symbolic salary of one dollar. He managed an effort to restructure the firm's employee stock-ownership plan, real-estate deals and bank loans, while rallying the firm's thousand employees, imposing a new governing structure that included Bain and the other founding partners giving up control, and increasing fiscal transparency. Within about a year, he had led Bain & Company through a turnaround and returned the firm to profitability without further layoffs or partner defections. He turned Bain & Company over to new leadership and returned to Bain Capital in December 1992.

Romney took a leave of absence from Bain Capital in February 1999 to serve as the President and CEO of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games Organizing Committee. By that time, Bain Capital was on its way to being one of the top private equity firms in the nation, having increased its number of partners from 5 to 18, with 115 employees overall, and $4 billion under its management. Bain Capital's approach of applying consulting expertise to the companies it invested in became widely copied within the private equity industry. Economist Steven Kaplan would later say, "[Romney] came up with a model that was very successful and very innovative and that now everybody uses."

Personal wealth[link]

In August 2001, Romney announced that he would not return to Bain Capital. He transferred his ownership to other partners and negotiated an agreement that allowed him to receive a passive profit share as a retired partner in some Bain Capital entities, including buyout and investment funds. Because the private equity business continued to thrive, this deal brought him millions of dollars in annual income. As a result of his business career, by 2007, Romney and his wife had a net worth of between $190 and $250 million, most of it held in blind trusts since 2003. In 2012, it was estimated that he had amassed twice the net worth of the last eight presidents combined, and would rank among the four richest in American history if elected.

An additional blind trust existed in the name of the Romneys' children and grandchildren that was valued at between $70 and $100 million as of 2007. The couple's net worth remained in the same range as of 2011, and was still held in blind trusts. In 2010, Romney and his wife received $21.7 million in income, almost all of it from investments, of which about $3 million went to federal income taxes (a rate of 13.9 percent, based upon the beneficial rate accorded investment income by the U.S. tax code) and almost $3 million to charity, including $1.5 million to the LDS Church. Romney has always tithed to the church, including stock from Bain Capital holdings. In 2010, the Romney family's Tyler Charitable Foundation gave out about $650,000, with some of it going to organizations that fight specific diseases such as cystic fibrosis and multiple sclerosis.

Local LDS Church leadership[link]

During his years in business, Romney held several specific positions in the local lay clergy, which generally consists of males over the age of 12. Around 1977, he became a counselor to the president of the Boston Stake. He served as bishop of the ward (ecclesiastical and administrative head of his congregation) at Belmont, Massachusetts, from 1981 to 1986. As such, in addition to home teaching, he also formulated Sunday services and classes using LDS scriptures to guide the congregation. He forged bonds with other religious institutions in the area when the Belmont meetinghouse was destroyed by a fire of suspicious origins in 1984; the congregation rotated its meetings to other houses of worship while it was rebuilt.

From 1986 to 1994, he presided over the Boston Stake, which included more than a dozen wards in eastern Massachusetts with about 4,000 church members altogether. He organized a team to handle financial and management issues, sought to counter anti-Mormon sentiments, and tried to solve social problems among poor Southeast Asian converts. An unpaid position, his local church leadership often took 30 or more hours a week of his time, and he became known for his tireless energy in the role. He generally refrained from overnight business travel owing to his church responsibilities.

He took a hands-on role in general matters, helping in maintenance efforts in- and outside homes, visiting the sick, and counseling troubled or burdened church members. A number of local church members later credited him with turning their lives around or helping them through difficult times. Some others were rankled by his leadership style and desired a more consensus-based approach. Romney tried to balance the conservative dogma insisted upon by the church leadership in Utah with the desire of some Massachusetts members to have a more flexible application of doctrine. He agreed with some modest requests from the liberal women's group Exponent II for changes in the way the church dealt with women, but clashed with women whom he felt were departing too much from doctrine. In particular, he counseled women not to have abortions except in the rare cases allowed by LDS doctrine, and also in accordance with doctrine, encouraged prospective mothers who were not in successful marriages to give up children for adoption. Romney later said that the years spent as an LDS minister gave him direct exposure to people struggling in economically difficult circumstances, and empathy for those going through problematic family situations.

1994 U.S. senatorial campaign[link]

By 1993, Romney had been thinking about entering politics, partly based upon Ann's urging and partly to follow in his father's footsteps. He decided to challenge incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy, who was seeking re-election for the sixth time. Kennedy was potentially vulnerable that year – in part because of the unpopularity of the Democratic Congress as a whole, and in part because this was Kennedy's first election since the William Kennedy Smith trial in Florida, in which Kennedy had suffered some negative public relations regarding his character. Romney changed his affiliation from Independent to Republican in October 1993 and formally announced his candidacy in February 1994. He took a leave of absence from Bain Capital in November 1993, and stepped down from his church leadership role during 1994, due to the campaign.

Radio personality Janet Jeghelian took an early lead in polls among candidates for the Republican nomination for the Senate seat, but Romney proved the most effective fundraiser. He won 68 percent of the vote at the May 1994 Massachusetts Republican Party convention; businessman John Lakian finished a distant second and Jeghelian was eliminated. Romney defeated Lakian in the September 1994 primary with over 80 percent of the vote.

In the general election, Kennedy faced the first serious re-election challenger of his career in the young, telegenic, and well-funded Romney. Romney ran as a fresh face, as a businessperson who stated he had created ten thousand jobs, and as a Washington outsider with a solid family image and moderate stances on social issues. When Kennedy tried to tie Romney's policies to those of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, Romney responded, "Look, I was an independent during the time of Reagan-Bush. I'm not trying to take us back to Reagan-Bush." Romney stated: "Ultimately, this is a campaign about change." After two decades out of public view, his father George re-emerged during the campaign.

Romney's campaign was effective in portraying Kennedy as soft on crime, but had trouble establishing its own positions in a consistent manner. By mid-September 1994, polls showed the race to be approximately even. Kennedy responded with a series of attack ads, which focused on Romney's seemingly shifting political views on issues such as abortion and on the treatment of workers at the Ampad plant owned by Romney's Bain Capital. The latter was effective in blunting Romney's momentum. Kennedy and Romney held a widely watched late October debate without a clear winner, but by then, Kennedy had pulled ahead in polls and stayed ahead afterward. Romney spent $3 million of his own money in the race and more than $7 million overall. This was the second-most expensive race of the 1994 election cycle, after the Dianne Feinstein–Michael Huffington Senate race in California.|group="nb"}} In the November general election, despite a disastrous showing for Democrats overall, Kennedy won the election with 58 percent of the vote to Romney's 41 percent, the smallest margin in Kennedy's eight re-election campaigns for the Senate.

2002 Winter Olympics[link]

Romney returned to Bain Capital the day after the election, but the loss had a lasting effect; he told his brother, "I never want to run for something again unless I can win." When his father died in 1995, Mitt donated his inheritance to BYU's George W. Romney Institute of Public Management and joined the board and was vice-chair of the Points of Light Foundation (which had incorporated his father's National Volunteer Center). His mother died in 1998. Romney felt restless as the decade neared a close; the goal of simply making more money was losing its appeal to him. He no longer had a church leadership position, although he still taught Sunday School. During the long and controversial approval and construction process for the $30 million Mormon temple in Belmont, he feared that as a political figure who had opposed Kennedy, he would become a focal point for opposition to the structure. He thus kept to a limited, behind-the-scenes role in attempts to ease tensions between the church and local residents, but locals nonetheless sometimes referred to it as "Mitt's Temple".

Ann Romney was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998; Mitt described watching her fail a series of neurological tests as the worst day of his life. After two years of severe difficulties with the disease, she found while living in Park City, Utah (where the couple had built a vacation home) a mixture of mainstream, alternative, and equestrian therapies that gave her a lifestyle mostly without limitations. When the offer came for him to take over the troubled 2002 Winter Olympics and Paralympics, to be held in Salt Lake City in Utah, she urged him to take it, and eager for a new challenge, he did. On February 11, 1999, Romney was hired as the president and CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games of 2002.

Before Romney came on, the event was running $379 million short of its revenue benchmarks. Plans were being made to scale back the Games to compensate for the fiscal crisis, and there were fears the Games might be moved away entirely. The Games had also been damaged by allegations of bribery involving top officials, including prior Salt Lake Olympic Committee president and CEO Frank Joklik. Joklik and committee vice president Dave Johnson were forced to resign. Romney was chosen by Utah figures looking for someone with expertise in business and law and with connections to the state and the LDS Church. The appointment faced some initial criticism from non-Mormons, and fears from Mormons, that it represented cronyism or gave the Games too Mormon an image.

Romney ran the planning for the Games like a business. He revamped the organization's leadership and policies, reduced budgets, and boosted fundraising, alleviated the concerns of corporate sponsors and recruited many new ones. He appealed to Utah's citizenry with a message of optimism that helped restore confidence in the effort. He worked to ensure the safety of the Games following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks by coordinating a $300 million security budget. Overall, he oversaw a $1.32 billion budget, 700 employees, and 26,000 volunteers. The federal government provided between approximately $400 million and $600 million of that budget, much of it a result of Romney's having aggressively lobbied Congress and federal agencies. It would prove to be a record level of federal funding for the staging of a U.S. Olympics. An additional federal $1.1 billion was spent on indirect support in the form of highway and transit projects.

Romney emerged as the public face of the Olympic effort, appearing in photographs, news stories and on Olympics pins. Robert H. Garff, the chair of the organizing committee, later said that "It was obvious that he had an agenda larger than just the Olympics," and that Romney wanted to use the Olympics to propel himself into the national spotlight and a political career. Garff believed the initial budget shortfall was not as bad as Romney portrayed, given there were still three years to reorganize. Utah Senator Bob Bennett said that much of the needed federal money was already in place and an analysis by ''The Boston Globe'' stated that the committee already had nearly $1 billion in committed revenues. Olympics critic Steve Pace, who led Utahns for Responsible Public Spending, thought Romney exaggerated the initial fiscal state in order to lay the groundwork for a well-publicized rescue. Kenneth Bullock, another board member of the organizing committee and also head of the Utah League of Cities and Towns, often clashed with Romney at the time, and later said that Romney deserved some credit for the turnaround but not as much as he claimed: Bullock said: "He tried very hard to build an image of himself as a savior, the great white hope. He was very good at characterizing and castigating people and putting himself on a pedestal."

Despite the initial fiscal shortfall, the Games ended up clearing a profit of $100 million. His performance as Olympics head was rated positively by 87 percent of Utahns. Romney and his wife contributed $1 million to the Olympics, and he donated to charity the $1.4 million in salary and severance payments he received for his three years as president and CEO.

Romney was widely praised for his efforts with the 2002 Winter Olympics including by President George W. Bush, and it solidified his reputation as a turnaround artist. Harvard Business School taught a case study based around his actions. He wrote a book about his experience titled ''Turnaround: Crisis, Leadership, and the Olympic Games'', published in 2004. The role gave Romney experience in dealing with federal, state, and local entities, a public persona he had previously lacked, and the chance to re-launch his political aspirations. He was mentioned as a possible candidate for statewide office in both Massachusetts and Utah, and also as possibly joining the Bush administration.

Governor of Massachusetts[link]

2002 gubernatorial campaign[link]

In 2002, Republican Acting Governor Jane Swift's administration was plagued by political missteps and personal scandals. Many Republicans viewed her as a liability and considered her unable to win a general election. Prominent party figures – as well as the White House – wanted Romney to run for governor, and the opportunity appealed to him for its national visibility. One poll taken at that time showed Republicans favoring Romney over Swift by more than 50 percentage points. On March 19, 2002, Swift announced she would not seek her party's nomination, and hours later Romney declared his candidacy, for which he would face no opposition in the primary. In June 2002, Massachusetts Democratic Party officials contested Romney's eligibility to run for governor, citing residency issues involving his time in Utah for the Olympics. That same month, the bipartisan Massachusetts State Ballot Law Commission unanimously ruled that he was an eligible candidate.

He again ran as a political outsider. He played down his party affiliation, saying he was "not a partisan Republican" but rather a "moderate" with "progressive" views. He touted his private sector experience as qualifying him for addressing the state's fiscal problems and stressed his ability to obtain federal funds for the state, giving his Olympics record as evidence. He proposed to reorganize the state government while eliminating waste, fraud, and mismanagement. The campaign was the first to use microtargeting techniques, in which fine-grained groups of voters were reached with narrowly tailored messaging.

To overcome the image that had damaged him in the 1994 Senate race – that of a wealthy corporate buyout specialist out of touch with the needs of regular people – a series of "work days" were staged throughout the campaign, in which Romney performed blue-collar jobs such as herding cows and baling hay, unloading a fishing boat, and hauling garbage. Television ads highlighting the effort, as well as one portraying his family in gushing terms and showing him shirtless, received a poor public response and contributed to his being behind his Democratic opponent, Massachusetts State Treasurer Shannon O'Brien, in polls as late as mid-October. He rebounded with ads that accused O'Brien of being a failed watchdog for state pension fund losses in the stock market and that associated her husband, a former lobbyist, with the Enron scandal. During the election he contributed over $6 million – a state record at the time – to the nearly $10 million raised for his campaign overall. Romney was elected governor on November 5, 2002, with 50 percent of the vote to O'Brien's 45 percent.

Tenure, 2003–2007[link]

When Romney was sworn in as the 70th governor of Massachusetts on January 2, 2003, both houses of the Massachusetts state legislature held large Democratic majorities. He picked his cabinet and advisors more on managerial abilities than partisan affiliation. Upon entering office in the middle of a fiscal year, he faced an immediate $650 million shortfall and a projected $3 billion deficit for the next year. Unexpected revenue of $1.0–1.3 billion from a previously enacted capital gains tax increase and $500 million in unanticipated federal grants decreased the deficit to $1.2–1.5 billion. Through a combination of spending cuts, increased fees, and removal of corporate tax loopholes, the state ran surpluses of around $600–700 million for the last two full fiscal years Romney was in office, although it began running deficits again after that. During fiscal 2007, Romney cut $384 million in spending that the legislature wanted; in January 2007, midway through the fiscal year, incoming Governor Deval Patrick restored that amount, and also declared that the state faced a "looming budget shortfall" of $1 billion for fiscal 2008. Patrick consequently proposed a budget for fiscal 2008 that included $515 million in spending cuts and $295 million in new corporate taxes. As it happened, the state ended fiscal 2007 with a $307.1 million deficit and fiscal 2008 with a $495.2 million deficit.|group="nb"}}

Romney supported raising various fees by more than $300 million, including those for driver's licenses, marriage licenses, and gun licenses. He increased a special gasoline retailer fee by two cents per gallon, generating about $60 million per year in additional revenue. (Opponents said the reliance on fees sometimes imposed a hardship on those who could least afford them.) Romney also closed tax loopholes that brought in another $181 million from businesses over the next two years and over $300 million for his term. He did so in the face of conservative and corporate critics that considered them tax increases.

The state legislature, with the governor's support, also cut spending by $1.6 billion, including $700 million in reductions in state aid to cities and towns. The cuts also included a $140 million reduction in state funding for higher education, which led state-run colleges and universities to increase tuition by 63 percent over four years. Romney sought additional cuts in his last year as governor by vetoing nearly 250 items in the state budget, but all were overridden by the heavily Democratic legislature.

The cuts in state spending put added pressure on localities to reduce services or raise property taxes, and the share of town and city revenues coming from property taxes rose from 49 to 53 percent. The combined state and local tax burden in Massachusetts increased during Romney's governorship but remained below the national average.

Romney sought to bring near-universal health insurance coverage to the state. This came after Staples founder Stemberg told him at the start of his term that doing so would be the best way he could help people, and after the federal government, owing to the rules of Medicaid funding, threatened to cut $385 million in those payments to Massachusetts if the state did not reduce the number of uninsured recipients of health care services. Although he had not campaigned on the idea of universal health insurance, Romney decided that because people without insurance still received expensive health care, the money spent by the state for such care could be better used to subsidize insurance for the poor.

After positing that any measure adopted not raise taxes and not resemble the previous decade's failed "Hillarycare" proposal, Romney formed a team of consultants from diverse political backgrounds. Beginning in late 2004, they came up with a set of proposals more ambitious than an incremental one from the Massachusetts Senate and more acceptable to him than one from the Massachusetts House of Representatives that incorporated a new payroll tax. In particular, Romney pushed for incorporating an individual mandate at the state level. Past rival Ted Kennedy, who had made universal health coverage his life's work and who, over time, had developed a warm relationship with Romney, gave the plan a positive reception, which encouraged Democratic legislators to cooperate. The effort eventually gained the support of all major stakeholders within the state, and Romney helped break a logjam between rival Democratic leaders in the legislature.

On April 12, 2006, the governor signed the resulting Massachusetts health reform law, commonly called "Romneycare", which requires nearly all Massachusetts residents to buy health insurance coverage or face escalating tax penalties, such as the loss of their personal income tax exemption. The bill also establishes means-tested state subsidies for people who do not have adequate employer insurance and whose income is below a threshold, with funds that were previously used to compensate for the health costs of the uninsured. He vetoed eight sections of the health care legislation, including a controversial $295-per-employee assessment on businesses that do not offer health insurance and provisions guaranteeing dental benefits to Medicaid recipients. The legislature overrode all eight vetoes, but the governor's office said the differences were not essential. The law was the first of its kind in the nation and became the signature achievement of Romney's term in office.|group="nb"}}

At the beginning of his governorship, Romney opposed same-sex marriage and civil unions, but advocated tolerance and supported some domestic partnership benefits. Faced with the dilemma of choosing between same-sex marriage or civil unions after the November 2003 Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court decision legalizing same-sex marriages (''Goodridge v. Department of Public Health''), Romney reluctantly backed a state constitutional amendment in February 2004 that would have banned same-sex marriage but still allow civil unions, viewing it as the only feasible way to ban same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. In May 2004, the governor instructed town clerks to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples, but citing a 1913 law that barred out-of-state residents from getting married in Massachusetts if their union would be illegal in their home state, no marriage licenses were to be issued to out-of-state same-sex couples not planning to move to Massachusetts. In June 2005, Romney abandoned his support for the compromise amendment, stating that the amendment confused voters who oppose both same-sex marriage and civil unions. Instead, he endorsed a petition effort led by the Coalition for Marriage & Family that would have banned same-sex marriage and made no provisions for civil unions. In 2004 and 2006, he urged the U.S. Senate to vote in favor of the Federal Marriage Amendment.

In 2005, Romney revealed a change of view regarding abortion, moving from the "unequivocal" pro-choice position expressed during his 2002 campaign to a pro-life one in opposition to ''Roe v. Wade''. He subsequently vetoed a bill on pro-life grounds that would expand access to emergency contraception in hospitals and pharmacies (the veto was overridden by the legislature).

Romney generally used the bully pulpit approach towards promoting his agenda, staging well-organized media events to appeal directly to the public rather than pushing his proposals in behind-doors sessions with the state legislature. He dealt with a public crisis of confidence in Boston's Big Dig project – that followed a fatal ceiling collapse in 2006 – by wresting control of the project from the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority.

During 2004, Romney spent considerable effort trying to bolster the state Republican Party, but it failed to gain any seats in the state legislative elections that year. He was given a prime-time appearance at the 2004 Republican National Convention, and was already being discussed as a potential 2008 presidential candidate. Midway through his term, Romney decided that he wanted to stage a full-time run for president, and on December 14, 2005, announced that he would not seek re-election for a second term. As chair of the Republican Governors Association, Romney traveled around the country, meeting prominent Republicans and building a national political network; he spent part or all of more than 200 days out of state during 2006, preparing for his run.

The governor had a 61 percent job approval rating in public polls after his initial fiscal actions in 2003, but it began to sink after that. The frequent out-of-state travel contributed to a decline in Romney's approval rating towards the end of his term; at 34 percent in November 2006, his rating level ranked 48th of the 50 U.S. governors. Dissatisfaction with Romney's administration and the weak condition of the Republican state party were among several factors that led to Democrat Deval Patrick's lopsided win over Republican Kerry Healey, Romney's Lieutenant Governor, in the 2006 Massachusetts gubernatorial election.

Romney filed to register a presidential campaign committee with the Federal Election Commission on his penultimate day in office as governor. His term ended January 4, 2007.

2008 presidential campaign[link]

Romney formally announced his candidacy for the 2008 Republican nomination for president on February 13, 2007, at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. In his speech, he frequently invoked his father and his own family and stressed experiences in the private, public, and voluntary sectors that had brought him to this point. He said, "Throughout my life, I have pursued innovation and transformation," and casting himself as a political outsider, said, "I do not believe Washington can be transformed from within by a lifelong politician."

Romney's campaign initially emphasized his résumé of a highly profitable career in the business world and his stewardship of the Olympics.|group="nb"}} He also had political experience as governor, together with a political pedigree courtesy of his father, and had a reputation for a strong work ethic and energy level. Ann Romney, who had become an outspoken advocate for those with multiple sclerosis, was in remission and would be an active participant in his campaign, helping to soften his political personality. Moreover, a number of commentators noted that with his square jaw and ample hair graying at the temples, the Romney – referred to as handsome in scores of media stories – physically matched one of the common images of what some believed a president should look like. Romney's liabilities included having run for senator and served as governor in one of the nation's most liberal states, having taken some positions there that were opposed by the party's conservative base, and subsequently shifting those positions. His religion was also viewed with suspicion and skepticism by some in the Evangelical portion of the party.

Romney assembled for his campaign a veteran group of Republican staffers, consultants, and pollsters. He was little-known nationally, though, and stayed around the 10 percent range in Republican preference polls for the first half of 2007. He proved the most effective fundraiser of any of the Republican candidates; his Olympics ties helped him with fundraising from Utahns and from sponsors and trustees of the games. He also partly financed his campaign with his own personal fortune. These resources, combined with the mid-year near-collapse of nominal front-runner John McCain's campaign, made Romney a threat to win the nomination and the focus of the other candidates' attacks. Romney's staff suffered from internal strife and the candidate himself was indecisive at times, constantly asking for more data before making a decision.

During all of his political campaigns, Romney has generally avoided speaking publicly about specific Mormon doctrines, referring to the U.S. Constitution prohibition of religious tests for public office. But persistent questions about the role of religion in Romney's life in this race, as well as Southern Baptist minister and former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee's rise in the polls based upon an explicitly Christian-themed campaign, led to the December 6, 2007, "Faith in America" speech. He said that he should neither be elected nor rejected based upon his religion, and echoed Senator John F. Kennedy's famous speech during his 1960 presidential campaign in saying, "I will put no doctrine of any church above the plain duties of the office and the sovereign authority of the law." Instead of discussing the specific tenets of his faith, he said that he would be informed by it and that, "Freedom requires religion just as religion requires freedom. Freedom and religion endure together, or perish alone." Academics would later study the role religion had played in the campaign. The authors concluded that, "For Romney ... religion ''is'' the central story." Another study, analyzing a survey conducted during January 2008 (when an African American, a woman, and a Mormon all had realistic chances of becoming the first president from that group), found that voters had internally accepted the notion of black equality, paving the way for Barack Obama's election; had partially established but not fully internalized the notion of gender equality, making Hillary Rodham Clinton's task somewhat more difficult; but had only selectively internalized the notion of religious equality, and in particular not extended it to Mormons, thus making Romney's run significantly more difficult. Those authors concluded that, "for a Mormon candidate, the road to the presidency remains very rough ... The bias against a Mormon candidate is substantial." |group="nb"}}

In the January 3, 2008, Iowa Republican caucuses, the first contest of the primary season, Romney received 25 percent of the vote and placed second to the vastly outspent Huckabee, who received 34 percent. Of the 60 percent of caucus-goers who were evangelical Christians, Huckabee was supported by about half of them while Romney by only a fifth. Two days later, Romney won the lightly contested Wyoming Republican caucuses.

At a Saint Anselm College debate, Huckabee and McCain pounded away at Romney's image as a flip flopper. Indeed, this label would stick to Romney through the campaign (but was one that Romney rejected as unfair and inaccurate, except for his acknowledged change of mind on abortion). Romney seemed to approach the campaign as a management consulting exercise, and showed a lack of personal warmth and political feel; journalist Evan Thomas wrote that Romney "came off as a phony, even when he was perfectly sincere." Romney's staff would conclude that competing as a candidate of social conservatism and ideological purity rather than of pragmatic competence had been a mistake.

Romney finished in second place by 5 percentage points to the resurgent McCain in the next-door-to-his-home-state New Hampshire primary on January 8. Romney rebounded to win the January 15 Michigan primary over McCain by a solid margin, capitalizing on his childhood ties to the state and his vow to bring back lost automotive industry jobs which was seen by several commentators as unrealistic.|group="nb"}} On January 19, Romney won the lightly contested Nevada caucuses, but placed fourth in the intense South Carolina primary, where he had effectively ceded the contest to his rivals. McCain gained further momentum with his win in South Carolina, leading to a showdown between him and Romney in the Florida primary.

For ten days, Romney campaigned intensively on economic issues and the burgeoning subprime mortgage crisis, while McCain repeatedly, and inaccurately, asserted that Romney favored a premature withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.|group="nb"}} McCain won key last-minute endorsements from Florida Senator Mel Martinez and Governor Charlie Crist, which helped push him to a 5 percentage point victory on January 29. Although many Republican officials were now lining up behind McCain, Romney persisted through the nationwide Super Tuesday contests on February 5. There he won primaries or caucuses in several states, including Massachusetts, Alaska, Minnesota, Colorado, and Utah, but McCain won more, including large states such as California and New York. Trailing McCain in delegates by a more than two-to-one margin, Romney announced the end of his campaign on February 7 during a speech before the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington.

Altogether, Romney had won 11 primaries and caucuses, received about 4.7 million total votes, and garnered about 280 delegates.

Romney endorsed McCain for president a week later. He became one of the McCain campaign's most visible surrogates, appearing on behalf of the GOP nominee at fundraisers, state Republican party conventions, and on cable news programs. His efforts earned McCain's respect and the two developed a warmer relationship; he was on the nominee's short list for the vice presidential running mate slot, where his economic expertise would have balanced one of McCain's weaknesses. McCain, behind in the polls, opted instead for a high-risk, high-reward "game changer", and selected Alaska Governor Sarah Palin. McCain lost the election to Democratic Senator Barack Obama.

Activity between presidential campaigns[link]

Following the election, Romney paved the way for a possible 2012 presidential campaign by using his Free and Strong America political action committee (PAC) to raise money for other Republican candidates and to pay his existing political staff's salaries and consulting fees. An informal network of former staff and supporters around the nation were eager for him to run again. He continued to give speeches and raise funds for Republicans, but turned down many potential media appearances, fearing overexposure. He also spoke before business, educational, and motivational groups. He served on the board of directors of Marriott International from 2009 to 2011 (having earlier served on it from 1993 to 2002).

In 2009, the Romneys sold their primary residence in Belmont and their ski chalet in Utah, leaving them an estate along Lake Winnipesaukee in Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, and an oceanfront home in the La Jolla district of San Diego, California, which they had bought the year before. The San Diego home was beneficial in location and climate for Ann Romney's multiple sclerosis therapies and for recovering from her late 2008 diagnosis and lumpectomy for mammary ductal carcinoma in situ. Both it and the New Hampshire location were near some of their grandchildren (who by 2012 numbered eighteen). Romney maintained his voting registration in Massachusetts, however, and bought a smaller condominium in Belmont during 2010. Romney was an early supporter of Scott Brown, the successful Republican candidate in that race. Some of Romney's former aides were used by Brown's campaign and Romney raised funds for Brown.|group="nb"}} In February 2010, Romney had a minor altercation with LMFAO member Skyler Gordy, known as Sky Blu, on an airplane flight.

Romney's book, ''No Apology: The Case for American Greatness'', was released in March 2010; an 18-state book tour was undertaken. The book, which debuted atop ''The New York Times'' Best Seller list, avoided anecdotes about his personal or political life in favor of a presentation of his economic and geopolitical views. Earnings from the book were donated to charity.

In nationwide opinion polling for the 2012 Republican Presidential primaries, Romney led or placed in the top three with Palin and Huckabee. A January 2010 ''National Journal'' survey of political insiders found that a majority of Republican insiders, and a plurality of Democratic insiders, predicted Romney would be the party's 2012 nominee. Romney campaigned heavily for Republican candidates in the 2010 midterm elections, raising more money than the other prospective 2012 Republican presidential candidates. Beginning in early 2011, Romney presented a more relaxed visual image, including rarely wearing a necktie.

2012 presidential campaign[link]

On April 11, 2011, Romney announced in a video taped outdoors at the University of New Hampshire that he had formed an exploratory committee for a run for the Republican presidential nomination. A Quinnipiac University political science professor stated, "We all knew that he was going to run. He's really been running for president ever since the day after the 2008 election."

Romney stood to gain from the Republican electorate's tendency to nominate candidates who had previously run for president and appeared to be "next in line" to be chosen. The early stages of the race found him as the apparent front-runner in a weak field, especially in terms of fundraising prowess and organization. Perhaps his greatest hurdle in gaining the Republican nomination was party opposition to the Massachusetts health care reform law that he had shepherded five years earlier. As many potential Republican candidates decided not to run (including Mike Pence, John Thune, Haley Barbour, Mike Huckabee, and Mitch Daniels), Republican party figures searched for plausible alternatives to Romney.

On June 2, 2011, he formally announced the start of his campaign. Speaking on a farm in Stratham, New Hampshire, he focused on the economy and criticized President Obama's handling of it. He said, "In the campaign to come, the American ideals of economic freedom and opportunity need a clear and unapologetic defense, and I intend to make it – because I have lived it."

Romney raised $56 million during 2011, far more than any of his Republican opponents, and refrained from spending any of his own money on his campaign. He initially ran a low-key, low-profile campaign. Michele Bachmann staged a brief surge in polls, then by September 2011, Romney's chief rival in polls was a recent entrant, Texas Governor Rick Perry. Perry and Romney exchanged sharp criticisms of each other during a series of debates among the Republican candidates. The October 2011 decisions of Chris Christie and Sarah Palin not to run finally settled the field. Perry faded after poor performances in those debates, while Herman Cain's long-shot bid gained popularity until allegations of sexual misconduct derailed him.

Romney continued to seek support from a wary Republican electorate; at this point in the race, his poll numbers were relatively flat and at a historically low level for a Republican frontrunner. After the charges of flip-flopping that marked his 2008 campaign began to accumulate again, Romney declared in November 2011 that "I've been as consistent as human beings can be." In the final month before voting began, Newt Gingrich enjoyed a major surge, taking a solid lead in national polls and in most of the early caucus and primary states, before settling back into parity or worse with Romney following a barrage of negative ads from Restore Our Future, a pro-Romney Super PAC.

In the initial 2012 Iowa caucuses of January 3, Romney was announced as the victor on election night with 25 percent of the vote, edging out a late-gaining Rick Santorum by eight votes (with an also-strong Ron Paul finishing third), but sixteen days later, Santorum was certified as the winner by a 34-vote margin. Romney decidedly won the New Hampshire primary the following week with a total of 39 percent; Paul finished second and Jon Huntsman third.

In the run-up to the South Carolina Republican primary, Gingrich launched attack ads criticizing Romney for causing job losses while at Bain Capital, Perry referred to Romney's role there as "vulture capitalism", and Sarah Palin questioned whether Romney could prove his claim that 100,000 jobs were created during that time. Many conservatives rallied in defense of Romney, rejecting what they inferred as criticism of free-market capitalism. However, during two debates, Romney fumbled questions about releasing his income tax returns, while Gingrich gained support with audience-rousing attacks on the debate moderators. Romney's double-digit lead in state polls evaporated and he lost to Gingrich by 13 points in the January 21 primary. Combined with the delayed loss in Iowa, Romney's admitted bad week represented a lost chance to end the race early, and he decided to release his tax returns quickly. The race turned to the Florida Republican primary, where in debates, appearances, and advertisements, Romney unleashed a concerted, unrelenting attack on Gingrich's past record and associations and current electability. Romney enjoyed a big spending advantage from both his campaign and his aligned Super PAC, and after a record-breaking rate of negative ads from both sides, Romney won Florida on January 31, gaining 46 percent of the vote to Gingrich's 32 percent.

There were several caucuses and primaries during February, and Santorum won three in a single night early in the month, propelling him into the lead in national and some state polls and positioning him as Romney's main rival. Romney won the other five, including a closely fought contest in his home state of Michigan at the end of the month. In the Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses of March 6, Romney won six of ten contests, including a narrow victory in Ohio over a greatly outspent Santorum, and although he failed to win decisively enough to end the race, still held a more than two-to-one edge over Santorum in delegates. Romney maintained his delegate margin through subsequent contests, and Santorum stopped his campaign on April 10. Following a sweep of five more contests on April 24, the Republican National Committee put its resources behind Romney as the party's presumptive nominee. Romney clinched a majority of the delegates with a win in the Texas primary on May 29.

Political positions and public perceptions[link]

For much of his business career, Romney did not take public political positions. While he had kept abreast of national politics during college, and the circumstances of his father's presidential campaign loss would irk him for decades, his early philosophical influences were often non-political, as during his missionary days when he read Napoleon Hill's pioneering self-help tome ''Think and Grow Rich'', and encouraged his colleagues to do the same. Until his 1994 U.S. Senate campaign, he was registered as an Independent. In the 1992 Democratic Party presidential primaries, he voted for the Democratic former senator from Massachusetts, Paul Tsongas.

In the 1994 Senate race, Romney aligned himself with Republican Massachusetts Governor William Weld, saying "I think Bill Weld's fiscal conservatism, his focus on creating jobs and employment and his efforts to fight discrimination and assure civil rights for all is a model that I identify with and aspire to." As a gubernatorial candidate in 2002, and then initially as Governor of Massachusetts, he generally operated in the mold established by Weld and followed by Weld's two other Republican successors, Paul Cellucci and Jane Swift: restrain spending and taxing, be tolerant or permissive on social issues, protect the environment, be tough on crime, try to appear post-partisan.

Later during his time as governor, Romney's position on abortion changed in conjunction with a similar change of position on stem cell research.|group="nb"}} Also during that time, his position or choice of emphasis on some aspects of gay rights,|group="nb"}} and some aspects of abstinence-only sex education,|group="nb"}} moved in a more conservative direction. The change in 2005 on abortion was the result of what he described as an epiphany experienced while investigating stem cell research issues. He later said, "Changing my position was in line with an ongoing struggle that anyone has that is opposed to abortion personally, vehemently opposed to it, and yet says, 'Well, I'll let other people make that decision.' And you say to yourself, but if you believe that you're taking innocent life, it's hard to justify letting other people make that decision."

This increased alignment with traditional conservatives on social issues coincided with Romney's becoming a candidate for the 2008 Republican nomination for President. He joined the National Rifle Association and portrayed himself as a lifelong hunter. In April 2007, he said, "I've been a hunter pretty much all my life," but then said he had only gone hunting twice and did not own guns, and "I'm not a big-game hunter. I've made that very clear. I've always been a rodent and rabbit hunter. Small varmints, if you will. I began when I was 15 or so and I have hunted those kinds of varmints since then. More than two times."|group="nb"}} He downplayed the Massachusetts health care law, became a convert on signing an anti-tax pledge, and backed away from further closings of corporate tax loopholes. There was a display of aggressiveness on foreign policy matters, such as wanting to double the number of detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. Skeptics, including some Republicans, charged Romney with opportunism and having a lack of core principles. The fervor with which Romney adopted his new stances and attitudes contributed to the perception of inauthenticity which hampered that campaign.

While there have been many biographical parallels between the lives of George and Mitt Romney, There are also obvious differences in their paths, including that George had a hardscrabble upbringing while Mitt's was affluent, and that Mitt far exceeded George's accomplishments in formal education. Another is that Mitt's personality is more reserved, private, and controlled than his father's was, traits he got from his mother Lenore. His political personality is also shaped at least as much by Lenore as by George.|group="nb"}} one particular difference is that while George was willing to defy political trends, Mitt has been much more willing to adapt to them. Mitt Romney has said that learning from experience and changing views accordingly is a virtue, and that, "If you're looking for someone who's never changed any positions on any policies, then I'm not your guy." Romney responded to criticisms of ideological pandering with the explanation that "The older I get, the smarter Ronald Reagan gets."

Journalist Daniel Gross sees Romney as approaching politics in the same terms as a business competing in markets, in that successful executives do not hold firm to public stances over long periods of time, but rather constantly devise new strategies and plans to deal with new geographical regions and ever-changing market conditions. Political profiler Ryan Lizza notes the same question regarding whether Romney's business skills can be adapted to politics, saying that "while giving customers exactly what they want may be normal in the corporate world, it can be costly in politics". Writer Robert Draper holds a somewhat similar perspective: "The Romney curse was this: His strength lay in his adaptability. In governance, this was a virtue; in a political race, it was an invitation to be called a phony." Writer Benjamin Wallace-Wells sees Romney as a detached problem solver rather than one who approaches political issues from a humanistic or philosophical perspective. Journalist Neil Swidey views Romney as a political and cultural enigma, "the product of two of the most mysterious and least understood subcultures in the country: the Mormon Church and private-equity finance," and believes that has led to the continued interest in a 1983 episode in which Romney kept his family dog on the roof of his car during a long road trip. Since becoming public in 2007, the story has been the source of complaints from animal lovers, a point of psychological study regarding Romney's emotion-free crisis management, an obsession to ''New York Times'' columnist Gail Collins, and the occasional target of news stories, talk show hosts and political rivals.|group="nb"}} Political writer Joe Klein views Romney as actually more conservative on social issues than he portrayed himself during his Massachusetts campaigns and less conservative on other issues than his presidential campaigns have represented, and concludes that Romney "has always campaigned as something he probably is not."

Immediately following the March 2010 passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Romney attacked the landmark legislation as "an unconscionable abuse of power" and said the act should be repealed. The antipathy Republicans felt for it created a potential problem for the former governor, since the new federal law was in many ways similar to the Massachusetts health care reform passed during Romney's term; as one Associated Press article stated, "Obamacare ... looks a lot like Romneycare." While acknowledging that his plan was an imperfect work in progress, Romney did not back away from it, and has consistently defended its underpinning state-level health insurance mandate. He has focused on its bipartisan support in the state legislature, the absence of Congressional Republican support for Obama's plan, and has contended that it was the right answer to Massachusetts' specific problems at the time. While Romney has not explicitly argued for a federally imposed mandate, and as of 2010 explicitly opposes one, during his 1994 Senate campaign he indicated he would vote for an overall health insurance proposal that contained one. He suggested during his time as governor and during his 2008 presidential campaign that the Massachusetts plan was a model for the nation and that, over time, mandate plans might be adopted by most or all of the nation.

Romney's foreign policy views are rooted in a firm belief in American exceptionalism and the need to preserve American supremacy in the world. This parallels the Mormon belief that the United States Constitution is divinely inspired and that the U.S. was selected by God to play a special part in human history. Indeed, Romney's political beliefs regarding a limited role for government, a need for self-reliance, and requirements for welfare recipients, often reflect Mormon tenets adapted for the secular world.

Throughout his business, Olympics, and political career, Romney's instinct has been to apply the "Bain way" towards problems. Romney has said, "There were two key things I learned at Bain. One was a series of concepts for approaching tough problems and a problem-solving methodology; the other was an enormous respect for data, analysis, and debate." He has written, "There are answers in numbers – gold in numbers. Pile the budgets on my desk and let me wallow." Romney believes the Bain approach is not only effective in the business realm but also in running for office and, once there, in solving political conundrums such as proper Pentagon spending levels and the future of Social Security. Former Bain and Olympics colleague Fraser Bullock has said of Romney, "He's not an ideologue. He makes decisions based on researching data more deeply than anyone I know." Romney's technocratic instincts have thus always been with him; in his public appearances during the 2002 gubernatorial campaign he sometimes gave PowerPoint presentations rather than conventional speeches. Upon taking office he became, in the words of ''The Boston Globe'', "the state's first self-styled CEO governor". During his 2008 presidential campaign, he constantly asked for data, analysis, and opposing arguments, and has been described by ''Slate'' magazine as a potential "CEO president".

Awards and honors[link]

Romney has received five honorary doctorates, including one in Business from the University of Utah in 1999, in Law from Bentley College in 2002, in Public Administration from Suffolk University Law School in 2004, in Public Service from Hillsdale College in 2007, and in Humanities from Liberty University in 2012.

''People'' magazine included him in its 50 Most Beautiful People list for 2002, and in 2004, he received the inaugural Truce Ideal Award for his role in the 2002 Winter Olympics. The Cranbrook School gave him their Distinguished Alumni Award in 2005. In 2008 he shared with his wife Ann, the Canterbury Medal from The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, for "refus[ing] to compromise their principles and faith" during the presidential campaign. In 2012 Romney was named to the ''Time'' 100 list of the most influential people in the world.

Writings[link]

See also[link]

List of Governors of Massachusetts

Republican Party presidential primaries, 2012

Notes[link]

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

;Official

MittRomney.com

;Other

|- |- |- |- |- |- |-

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Name	George Pataki
Order	53rd
Office	Governor of New York
Term start	January 1, 1995
Term end	December 31, 2006
Lieutenant	Betsy McCaughey Ross Mary Donohue
Predecessor1	Mario Cuomo
Successor1	Eliot Spitzer
Office2	Member of theNew York State Senatefrom the 37th District
Term start2	January 1, 1993
Term end2	December 31, 1994
Predecessor2	Mary Goodhue
Successor2	Vincent Leibell
Office3	Member of theNew York State Assemblyfrom the 91st District
Term start3	January 1, 1985
Term end3	December 31, 1992
Predecessor3	Bill Ryan
Successor3	Vincent Leibell
Office4	Mayor of Peekskill, New York
Term start4	1981
Term end4	1984
Predecessor4	Fred Bianco
Successor4	Richard E. Jackson
Birthname	George Elmer Pataki
Birth date	June 24, 1945
Birth place	Peekskill, New York
Spouse	Libby Pataki
Alma mater	Yale University,Columbia Law School
Profession	Attorney, Politician
Party	Republican
Religion	Roman Catholic
Signature	George Pataki Signature.svg }}

George Elmer Pataki (; born June 24, 1945) is an American politician who was the 53rd Governor of New York. A member of the Republican Party, Pataki served three consecutive four-year terms from January 1, 1995 until December 31, 2006.

Early life[link]

Pataki's paternal grandfather was János (later John) Pataki (1883–1971) of Aranyos-Apáti, Hungary, who came to the United States in 1908 and worked in a hat factory. János had married Erzsébet (later Elizabeth; 1887 – 1975) around 1904. Their son, Pataki's father, was Louis P. Pataki (1912–1996), a mailman. Pataki's maternal grandfather was Matteo Laganà (born in Calabria, Italy in 1889), who married Agnes Lynch of County Louth, Ireland around 1914. Their daughter, Margaret Lagana, is Pataki's mother. He has an older brother, Louis. George Pataki can still speak a little Hungarian today.

Pataki married Elizabeth Rowland in 1973, and they have four children: Emily, Teddy, Allison, and Owen.

After attending Peekskill High School, he entered Yale University in 1964 on an academic scholarship, and graduated in 1967. While there he served as chairman of the Conservative Party of the Yale Political Union. He received his J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1970.

Summary of political career[link]

1981–1984 Mayor of Peekskill, New York

1985–1992 New York State Assembly

1993–1994 New York State Senate

1995–1999 New York Governor (First Term)

1999–2003 New York Governor (Second Term)

2003–2007 New York Governor (Third Term)

Early political career[link]

While practicing law at Plunkett and Jaffe, P.C. in Peekskill, Pataki became friends with Michael C. Finnegan, who would go on to be the architect of Pataki's ascendancy to power. Finnegan would go on to manage Pataki's campaigns for Mayor, State Assembly, State Senate, and the Governorship. Finnegan was then appointed Chief Counsel to the Governor in 1995, and played the key role in developing and negotiating nearly all of Pataki's early legislative success.

Mayor of Peekskill[link]

George Pataki first won elected office in November 1981. He was elected Mayor of the City of Peekskill, which is located in the Northwestern part of Westchester County. Pataki defeated the Democratic incumbent Fred Bianco Jr., winning 70% of the vote. In November 1983, Pataki was re-elected Mayor, winning 74% of the vote.

New York State Assembly[link]

In November 1984, George Pataki was elected to the New York State Assembly, (91st district), by defeating the one-term Democratic incumbent, William J. Ryan, winning 53% of the vote. In November 1986, Pataki defeated Ryan in a rematch, capturing 63% of the vote. Pataki won a third term in November 1988, winning 74% of the vote against Democratic candidate Mark Zinna. Pataki won a fourth and final term in November 1990, winning over 90% of the vote, as he only faced a minor party candidate.

New York State Senate[link]

From 1983 to 1992, the 91st Assembly district included parts of Westchester, Orange, Rockland, and Putnam Counties. However, in 1992, Assembly Democrats substantially redrew the district boundaries, placing the newly renamed 90th Assembly district entirely within Westchester County. Instead of running in the newly redrawn district, Pataki decided to challenge seven-term incumbent Republican State Senator Mary Goodhue in the Republican primary by criticizing her for taking her grandchildren to Disney World and missing a vote in Albany. Pataki won the primary by a 52% to 48% margin. However, Goodhue was still going to appear on the November ballot on a minor party line. In November 1992, George Pataki won election to the New York State Senate in a 4-way race. Pataki served one term before running for Governor.

Gubernatorial campaigns[link]

1994 campaign[link]

Campaign[link]

Pataki was a first term state senator from Westchester County when he launched his bid for the Republican nomination for governor in 1994. He said he launched the campaign because of his frustration in the Senate regarding how Albany worked and on tax issues. He was little known statewide and his campaign received a boost when he was endorsed by U.S. Sen. Al D'Amato. He received the party's endorsement at the spring state convention and easily defeated former State Republican Chairman Richard Rosenbaum in the September primary. Pataki was considered an underdog from the start since he was running against three term Gov. Mario Cuomo and that Pataki had little name recognition statewide. D'Amato reportedly backed Pataki because of a poll that showed a pro-choice, fiscal conservative from the New York City suburbs could win statewide for governor. The poll also showed a female running mate for lieutenant governor would help the ticket, thus leading to the selection of academic Betsy McCaughey as Pataki's running mate.

The polls had Gov. Cuomo up by as much as ten points going into the final two weeks, but they then narrowed at the end. In reality, however, Pataki remained neck and neck with Cuomo during the entire race, focusing solely on the issues of tax cuts and the death penalty during the campaign. In addition he made an issue of Cuomo seeking a fourth term as governor and pledged to serve only two terms in office. Cuomo was helped late in the race by the endorsement of New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani. In the end, Pataki narrowly defeated Cuomo in the general election. Many, including George Pataki himself, believe Howard Stern's endorsement of Pataki was a major reason for his win. As a result, Stern was present at the podium with Pataki during his inauguration.

Pataki made up for a softer performance in New York City and Long Island by running up a decisive margin north of the city, especially among upstaters disenchanted with Cuomo. Pataki was the first governor elected since Franklin D. Roosevelt to not come from one of the five boroughs of New York City.

Ticket[link]

1994 NYS Republican and Conservative Party Tickets

Governor: George Pataki

Lieutenant Governor: Betsy McCaughey Ross

Comptroller: Bruce Blakeman

Attorney General: Dennis Vacco

U.S. Senate: Al D'Amato

Results[link]

{| class=wikitable |+General election results |- style="background:lightgrey;" ! style="width:20%;"| Governor candidate ! style="width:20%;"| Running Mate ! style="width:16%;"| Party ! style="width:18%;" colspan="2"| Popular Vote (PV) |- |George E. Pataki |Betsy McCaughey Ross |Republican, Conservative, Tax Cut Now | style="text-align:right;"| 2,488,631 | style="text-align:right;"| (48.8 %) |- |Mario M. Cuomo |Stan Lundine |Democratic, Liberal | style="text-align:right;"| 2,364,904 | style="text-align:right;"| (45.4 %) |- |B. Thomas Golisano |Dominick Fusco |Independence Fusion | style="text-align:right;"| 217,490 | style="text-align:right;"| (4.1 %) |- |Robert T. Walsh |Virginia E. Sutton |Right to Life | style="text-align:right;"| 67,750 | style="text-align:right;"| (1.3 %) |- |Robert L. Schulz |Stan Dworkin |Libertarian | style="text-align:right;"| 9,506 | style="text-align:right;"| (0.2 %) |- |Lawrence Lane |May Nell Bockman |Socialist Workers | style="text-align:right;"| 5,410 | style="text-align:right;"| (0.1 %) |}

1998 campaign[link]

Campaign[link]

Pataki was considered the frontrunner from the start of the 1998 campaign for governor. He was unopposed for the Republican nomination and paired with a new running mate, Judge Mary Donohue. The Democrats faced a primary battle between New York City Council Speaker Peter Vallone, Lt. Gov. Betsy McCaughey Ross, and former Transportation Commissioner James LaRocca. Vallone captured the Democratic nomination, with Thomas Golisano running as the Independence nominee and McCaughey Ross as the Liberal Party nominee. Pataki was easily reelected to a second term in office.

Ticket[link]

1998 Republican, Conservative and Freedom Party of New York Tickets

Governor: George Pataki

Lieutenant Governor: Mary Donohue

Comptroller: Herbert London

Attorney General: Dennis Vacco

U.S. Senate: Alfonse D'Amato

Results[link]

{| class=wikitable |+General election results |- style="background:lightgrey;" ! style="width:20%;"| Governor candidate ! style="width:20%;"| Running Mate ! style="width:16%;"| Party ! style="width:18%;" colspan="2"| Popular Vote (PV) ! rowspan="9" style="background:white; border-bottom:3px;"| |- | George E. Pataki | Mary O. Donohue | Republican, Conservative | style="text-align:right;"| 2,571,991 | style="text-align:right;"| 54.32% |- | Peter F. Vallone Sr. | Sandra Frankel | Democrat, Working Families | style="text-align:right;"| 1,570,317 | style="text-align:right;"| 33.16% |- | B. Thomas Golisano | Laureen Oliver | Independence | style="text-align:right;"| 364,056 | style="text-align:right;"| 7.69% |- | Betsy McCaughey Ross | Jonathan C. Reiter | Liberal | style="text-align:right;"| 77,915 | style="text-align:right;"| 1.65% |- | Michael Reynolds | Karen Prior | Right to Life | style="text-align:right;"| 56,683 | style="text-align:right;"| 1.20% |- | Al Lewis | Alice Green | Green | style="text-align:right;"| 52,533 | style="text-align:right;"| 1.11% |- | Thomas K. Leighton | Jeffrey C. Wright | Marijuana Reform | style="text-align:right;"| 24,788 | style="text-align:right;"| 0.52% |- | Mary Alice France | – | Unity Party | style="text-align:right;"| 9,692 | style="text-align:right;"| 0.20% |- | Chris Garvey | Don Silberger | Libertarian | style="text-align:right;"| 4,722 | style="text-align:right;"| 0.10% |- | Al Duncan | Ruth Robinett | Socialist Workers | style="text-align:right;"| 2,539 | style="text-align:right;"| 0.05% |}

2002 campaign[link]

Campaign[link]

Pataki was considered a strong contender for a third term. He ran again on a ticket with Lt. Gov. Mary Donohue and the Democrats faced a primary battle between State Comptroller Carl McCall and former HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo. Pataki emphasized his previous work and the need to have continuity following Sept. 11.

Pataki sought the nomination of the Independence Party of New York in his bid for a third term as well. He faced Thomas Golisano, the party's founder in his bid for the nomination. Pataki ran an active primary campaign and lost to Golisano. Donohue did win the primary for lieutenant governor and was both the running mate of Pataki and Golisano in the general election.

Pataki faced McCall and Golisano in the general election, during which he continued to emphasize his past work for the state. He easily defeated the two.

A Pataki-Cuomo rematch nearly occurred in the 2002 election. Mario's son Andrew Cuomo announced plans to run. However, he stumbled on April 17 and ultimately withdrew before the primary at the urging of his mentor Bill Clinton when Cuomo was quoted in the media as saying (regarding Pataki's performance post-9/11):

:"Pataki stood behind the leader. He held the leader's coat. He was a great assistant to the leader. But he was not a leader. Cream rises to the top, and Rudy Giuliani rose to the top."

Ticket[link]

2002 NYS Republican and Conservative Party Tickets

Governor: George Pataki

Lieutenant Governor: Mary Donohue

Comptroller: John Faso

Attorney General: Dora Irizarry

Results[link]

Governor candidate	! style="width:20%;"	Party	Popular Vote (PV)
George E. Pataki (inc.)		United States Republican Party
	[[Dennis Mehiel	Democratic Party (United States)
[[B. Thomas Golisano
Gerard J. Cronin	Stasia T. Vogel
Stanley Aronowitz	Jennifer Daniels
Thomas K. Leighton	Thomas J. Hillgardner
Andrew Cuomo
Scott Jeffrey	Jay Greco
Other elections: New York gubernatorial election, 1994						1994, 1998, 2002, 2006

Governorship[link]

The Cato Institute gave Pataki a C for his fiscal policy during the three terms in office, saying that he wasn't the fiscal conservative that he originally campaigned as, mainly because he became a "big spender". Studies show that state spending went from $62 billion in 1995 to $95 billion in 2004. It is predicted that, had the state kept the budget at the same 1995 levels, the rate of inflation would have increased spending to only $77 billion. In July 2005, Pataki announced his intention not to seek a fourth term as governor in 2006.

Legacy[link]

Prior to Pataki's departure ''New York Post'' political writer Fred Dicker wrote a scathing critique of Pataki's tenure, accusing the Governor of broken promises, inattentiveness to his duties, and a focus on maintaining power. It was entitled "Good Riddance".

On Pataki's final day in office, ''The New York Times'' ran an editorial evaluating his twelve years as governor. While the ''Times'' praised his work on health care and the environment, he was criticized for the lack of tangible reform and the consolidation of power under his watch. The ''Times'' was ambivalent about his record on crime and the state budget.

Personal events[link]

2000 presidential election[link]

In July 2000, Pataki's name surfaced on the short list to be the running mate for Republican presidential nominee George W. Bush, along with the names of Governor John Engler of Michigan, Governor Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania, former Senator John Danforth of Missouri, and former U.S. Labor Secretary Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina. Bush eventually selected the man who was in charge of scouting vice presidential candidates, former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney. Pataki had strongly campaigned for Bush including an unsuccessful effort to keep John McCain off the New York primary ballot (which Bush ultimately won).

2004 Republican Primary[link]

Pataki and New York GOP Chairman Sandy Treadwell faced controversy after naming moderate Assemblyman Howard Mills the party's nominee for the U.S. Senate against Senator Chuck Schumer over conservative Michael Benjamin, who held significant advantages in both fund raising and organization. Benjamin publicly accused Treadwell and Pataki of trying to muscle him out of the senate race and undermine the democratic process. Mills went on to lose the election in the largest landslide for a Senate seat in the history of New York.

2004 Presidential election[link]

Pataki was instrumental in bringing the 2004 Republican National Convention to Madison Square Garden in Manhattan. New York City, which normally votes overwhelmingly Democratic (the Democratic Presidential candidates carried 78 percent of the city vote in both 2000 and 2004), had never hosted a Republican Convention. He introduced President George W. Bush. A year prior, Pataki had boasted Bush would carry the state in the 2004 elections; Bush lost New York 58–40 to John Kerry. Pataki notably orated, "This fall, we're going to win one for the Gipper. But our opponents, they're going lose one with the Flipper."

2006 Hospitalization[link]

Pataki suffered a burst appendix and had an emergency appendectomy on February 16, 2006 at Hudson Valley Hospital Center. Six days later, he developed a post-surgical complication (bowel obstruction caused by adhesions) and was transferred to New York-Presbyterian/Columbia Medical Center for a second operation. From there, he was discharged on March 6. Doctors advised rest at home since his conditions could last up to a month. On the week of March 20–24, 2006, he appeared at a public press conference looking fit and thinner to comment on the progress of the annual budget and the recent Campaign for Fiscal Equity ruling from the New York state court. During Pataki's two surgeries, when he was under anesthesia, power officially transferred to Lt. Gov. Mary Donohue, making her the state's acting Governor. Pataki came under criticism when it was revealed that he and his staff did not inform Donohue that she was acting Governor the first time, until after Pataki had woken up and resumed power.

2006 State Comptroller controversy[link]

In October 2006, Pataki named a special counsel to investigate the allegations that State Comptroller Alan Hevesi had misued state resources when he had a state driver chauffeur his wife around. Pataki's counsel was studying whether Pataki could recommend to the State Senate that Hevesi be removed from office. Pataki's special counsel recommended that Hevesi could be removed, but Pataki declined to recommend removal, saying that it would only apply for Hevesi's term expiring at the end of 2006 and not for his new term starting in 2007. After Hevesi's December 2006 resignation, Pataki briefly considered naming an interim comptroller to serve until the State Legislature named a new comptroller.

2007 Airplane usage controversy[link]

During his 1994 campaign, Pataki criticized Cuomo's use of state airplanes and said that he would not use the planes as governor. In January 2007, Acting State Comptroller Tom Sanzillo announced that he was declining to pay a bill Pataki submitted to the state to lease a private plane to fly to Virginia in December 2006. Acting Comptroller Sanzillo said Pataki could have used a state plane to make the trip. Pataki flew to Virginia on state business in order to inspect steel to be used in the Freedom Tower. The bill was forwarded to the Office of Gov. Eliot Spitzer for consideration. Spitzer's office ruled that Pataki's campaign committee needed to pay the bill for the private plane, since a state plane could have been used.

Post-Governorship[link]

After leaving the governorship, Pataki joined the law firm Chadbourne & Parke in New York joining their renewable energy practice. He continued to flirt with a possible bid for President. After ruling out a presidential campaign, Pataki retained his political action committee, which he could legally use to further his own views and other political interests. In addition, Pataki has formed an environmental consulting firm with his former chief of staff John Cahill, the Pataki-Cahill Group and work with the Council on Foreign Relations on climate change issues. In the climate change issue, he is working with former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack. He also serves as the Vice-Chairman of the board of directors for the American Security Council Foundation.

United Nations[link]

In September 2007, President George W. Bush appointed Pataki as a United States delegate to the 2007 United Nations General Assembly session. In this capacity, Pataki attends various meetings of the UN General Assembly and GA committees on behalf of the United States, during the annual GA session. When he was appointed to the post, to which he was confirmed by the United States Senate, Pataki announced he was planning on focusing on climate change and terrorism issues while at the UN. The UN post lasts for the length of the annual GA session.

Governor George E. Pataki Leadership and Learning Center[link]

The Governor George E. Pataki Leadership and Learning Center, located in Peekskill, New York, is designed to educate schoolchildren on government using Governor Pataki’s public service as an example. Charles Gargano, Pataki's former economic development chief, led the effort to create the center. On August 14, 2008 the New York Times announced that the center’s sponsors had “filed paperwork with the State Department of Education and are trying to raise $500,000 for a start-up fund so they can open the center in the fall.” The center currently holds Governor Pataki’s official portrait, which will be moved to Albany at the end of 2009. The center has three directors: David Catalfamo, the governor’s former communications chief; Kimberly Cappelleri, Libby Pataki’s former chief of staff; and, Amy Holden, former executive assistant to the governor.

Declined 2010 U.S. Senate Bid[link]

On February 19, 2009, AP News reported that Pataki had been approached by Sen. John Cornyn, head of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, about a possible run for the U.S. Senate, seat currently held by Kirsten Gillibrand, in 2010. On November 4, 2009, George Stephanopoulos, host of ABC News "This Week", claimed "Pataki has told at least one major GOP donor in private that he is not interested in becoming a senator at the age of 64 and would rather run for president in 2012". On November 5, the ''Queens Village Times'' reported:

At the state level, there is increasing speculation that former Republican Gov. George Pataki will be challenging U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), who was appointed to fill out the term of now-U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Several weeks ago Pataki...gave the impression of being a man beginning a serious political comeback. If that contest takes place, we will have a former three-term governor running for a U.S. Senate seat. ...Pataki will be running as the Republican and Conservative candidate in addition to possibly obtaining the nomination of the Independence Party.

On April 13, 2010, Pataki confirmed that he would not run against Gillibrand.

Possible 2012 Presidential Bid[link]

In November 2009, Pataki traveled to Iowa, sparking speculation. Ending months of speculation, former New York Gov. George Pataki announced on August 26, 2011 he will not run for the Republican presidential nomination.

Revere America[link]

Pataki announced in April 2010 that he was creating a nonprofit organization, Revere America, that would advocate for repeal of the recently-enacted United States Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, which he said was a "horrific" and costly bungle.

References [link]

External links [link]

No American Debt, George Pataki is the Honorary Chairman

Video of speech at cornerstone laying ceremony for the Freedom Tower on July 4, 2004

Category:1945 births Category:Living people Category:Governors of New York Category:American people of Hungarian descent Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American people of Italian descent Category:American Roman Catholics Category:Westchester County, New York politicians Category:Columbia Law School alumni Category:Yale University alumni Category:New York Republicans Category:Amateur radio people Category:New York State Senators Category:Members of the New York State Assembly Category:People of Calabrian descent

cs:George Pataki da:George Pataki de:George Pataki es:George Pataki fr:George E. Pataki it:George Pataki la:Georgius Pataki hu:George Pataki nl:George Pataki ja:ジョージ・パタキ no:George Pataki pl:George Pataki pt:George Pataki ru:Патаки, Джордж fi:George Pataki sv:George Pataki yi:דזשארזש פאטאקי zh:乔治·保陶基

Name	Chris Christie
Order	55th
Office	Governor of New Jersey
Lieutenant	Kim Guadagno
Term start	January 19, 2010
Predecessor	Jon Corzine
Office2	United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey
Nominator2	George W. Bush
Term start2	January 17, 2002
Term end2	December 1, 2008
Predecessor2	Robert Cleary
Successor2	Ralph Marra (Acting)
Office3	Member of the Morris County Board of Chosen Freeholders
Term start3	January 1, 1995
Term end3	January 1, 1998
Birthname	Christopher James Christie
Birth date	September 06, 1962
Birth place	Newark, New Jersey
Party	Republican Party
Spouse	Mary Pat Foster
Children	Andrew (b. 1993) Sarah (b. 1996) Patrick (b. 2000) Bridget (b. 2003)
Residence	Mendham
Alma mater	University of DelawareSeton Hall University
Religion	Roman Catholic
Signature	Chris Christie Signature.svg }}

Christopher James "Chris" Christie (born September 6, 1962) is the 55th and current Governor of New Jersey. Upon his election to the governorship in November 2009, Christie became the first Republican to win a statewide election in New Jersey in 12 years. Christie, an attorney, previously served as United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey and as a Morris County, New Jersey Freeholder. In 2011, he considered entering the race for the Republican Presidential nomination but ultimately decided not to run.

Early life, education, and family[link]

Chris Christie was born in Newark, New Jersey, the son of Sondra A. (née Grasso) and Wilbur James "Bill" Christie, a certified public accountant. Christie is of Scottish, Irish, and Sicilian descent. He was raised in Livingston, graduating from Livingston High School. Christie graduated from the University of Delaware with a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 1984 and Seton Hall University School of Law with a Juris Doctor in 1987. Christie was admitted to the Bar of the State of New Jersey and the Bar of the United States District Court, District of New Jersey, in December 1987. After being elected the Governor of New Jersey, he was awarded honorary doctorate degrees from Rutgers University, the state university of New Jersey, and Monmouth University in 2010.

In 1986, Christie married Mary Pat Foster, a fellow student at the University of Delaware. After marriage they shared a one-room apartment in Summit, New Jersey. Mary Pat Christie pursued a career in investment banking, eventually working at the Wall Street firm Cantor Fitzgerald. She left the firm in 2001 following the September 11 attacks, only recently returning to work part-time. They have four children: Andrew (born 1993), Sarah (born 1996), Patrick (born 2000), and Bridget (born 2003). Christie and his family reside in Mendham Township.

Early career[link]

Lawyer[link]

In 1987, Christie joined the law firm of Dughi, Hewit & Palatucci of Cranford, New Jersey. In 1993, he was named a partner in the firm. Christie specialized in securities law, appellate practice, election law, and government affairs. He is a member of the American Bar Association and the New Jersey State Bar Association and was a member of the Election Law Committee of the New Jersey State Bar Association.

Morris County Freeholder[link]

Christie, at the time a resident of Mendham, was in 1994 elected as a Republican to the Morris County Board of Chosen Freeholders, with Christie and a running mate having defeated incumbent freeholders in the party primary. After that election, the defeated incumbents filed defamation lawsuits against Christie based on statements made during the primary campaign. Christie had incorrectly stated that the incumbents were under investigation for violating certain local laws. The lawsuit was settled out of court.

As freeholder, Christie required the county government to obtain three quotes from qualified firms for all contracts. He led a successful effort to bar county officials from accepting gifts from people and firms doing business with the county. He voted to raise the county's open space tax for land preservation; however, county taxes on the whole were decreased by 6.6% during his tenure. He successfully pushed for the dismissal of an architect hired to design a new jail, saying that the architect was costing taxpayers too much money. The architect then sued Christie for defamation over remarks he made about the dismissal.

In 1995, Christie announced a bid for a seat in the New Jersey General Assembly; he and attorney Rick Merkt ran as a ticket against incumbent Assemblyman Anthony Bucco and attorney Michael Patrick Carroll in the Republican primary. Bucco and Carroll, the establishment candidates, defeated the up-and-comers by a wide margin. After this loss, Christie's bid for re-nomination to the freeholder board was unlikely, as unhappy Republicans recruited John J. Murphy to run against Christie in 1997. Murphy defeated Christie in the primary. Murphy, who had falsely accused Christie of having the county pay his legal bills in the architect's lawsuit, was sued by Christie after the election. They settled out of court; nevertheless, Christie's career in Morris County politics was over by 1998.

Lobbyist[link]

In 1998 Christie registered as a lobbyist for the firm of Dughi, Hewit & Palatucci, alongside fellow partner and later, gubernatorial campaign fundraiser Bill Palatucci. Between 1999 and 2001, Christie and Palatucci lobbied on behalf of, among others, GPU Energy for deregulation of New Jersey's electric and gas industry; the Securities Industry Association to block the inclusion of securities fraud under the state's Consumer Fraud Act; Hackensack University Medical Center for state grants, and the University of Phoenix for a New Jersey higher education license.

United States Attorney[link]

Christie served as the chief federal law enforcement officer in New Jersey from January 17, 2002, to December 1, 2008. His office included 137 attorneys, with offices in Newark, Trenton and Camden. Christie also served as one of the 17 U.S. Attorneys on Attorney General John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales' advisory committee.

Appointment[link]

On December 7, 2001, Christie was nominated to be the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey. He was unanimously confirmed by the United States Senate on December 20, 2001, and sworn into office on January 17, 2002.

Controversy surrounded his appointment; some members of the New Jersey Bar professed disappointment at Christie's lack of criminal law experience and his history as a top fundraiser for George W. Bush's 2000 presidential campaign. The extent of the role played by Bush's political adviser, Karl Rove, also became an issue after Christie's law partner, William Palatucci, a Republican political consultant and Bush supporter, boasted that he had selected a United States attorney by forwarding Christie's résumé to Rove.

Christie has stated that his distant familial connection to Genovese crime family leader Tino Fiumara never came up during his Federal Bureau of Investigation background check for his position as a U.S. Attorney; he told ''The New York Times'' in 2009 that he had assumed that investigators were aware of the connection. During his tenure as U.S. Attorney, Christie recused himself from his office's investigation, indictment, and prosecution of Fiumara for aiding the flight of a fugitive. A 2011 commentary on MarketWatch identified Fiumara as Christie's aunt's husband's late brother and said Christie has dismissed the relationship as a "private matter".

Achievements[link]

Despite the initial misgivings over his degree of experience, Christie received praise for his history of convictions for public corruption. During his tenure, Christie's office won convictions or guilty pleas from 130 public officials, both Republican and Democratic, on the state, county and local levels without losing a single case. The most notable of these convictions included those of Hudson County Executive Robert C. Janiszewski in 2002 on bribery charges, Essex County Executive James W. Treffinger in 2003 on corruption charges, former New Jersey Senate President John A. Lynch, Jr. in 2006 on charges of mail fraud and tax evasion, State Senator and former Newark mayor Sharpe James in 2008 on fraud charges, and State Senator Wayne R. Bryant in 2008 on charges of bribery, mail fraud, and wire fraud.

Claims of misuse of deferred prosecution agreements[link]

Christie has been accused of using his office's role in crafting deferred prosecution agreements to award lucrative federal monitoring positions in no-bid contracts to friends, supporters, and allies. Questions first arose after Christie awarded a multimillion-dollar no-bid contract to David Kelley, another former U.S. Attorney, who had investigated Christie's brother, Todd Christie, in a 2005 fraud case involving traders at the Wall Street firm, Spear, Leeds & Kellogg. Kelley had declined to prosecute Todd Christie, who had been ranked fourth in the investigation—initiating a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) complaint among twenty traders who earned the largest profits for their company at the expense of their customers. The top three were indicted, as were eleven other traders.

Christie was similarly criticized for his 2007 recommendation of the appointment of The Ashcroft Group, a consulting firm owned by Christie's former superior, the former United States Attorney General John Ashcroft, as a monitor in a court settlement against Zimmer Holdings, an Indiana medical supplies company. The no-bid contract was worth between $28 million and $52 million. Christie defended the decision, saying that Ashcroft’s prominence and legal acumen made him a natural choice. Christie declined to intercede when Zimmer's company lawyers protested the Group’s plans to charge a rate of $1.5 million to $2.9 million per month for the monitoring. Shortly after the House Judiciary Committee began holding hearings on the matter, the Justice Department re-wrote the rules regarding the appointment of court monitors.

Christie also faced criticism over the terms of a $311-million fraud settlement with Bristol-Myers Squibb. Christie’s office deferred criminal prosecution of the pharmaceutical company in a deal that required it to dedicate $5 million for a business ethics chair at Seton Hall University School of Law, Christie's alma mater. The U.S. Justice Department subsequently set guidelines forbidding such requirements as components of out-of-court corporate crime settlements.

In June 2009, Christie was called before the House Judiciary Committee as part of its consideration of new regulations on deferred prosecution agreements. In his testimony, he defended his decisions to award no-bid, high-paying federal monitoring contracts to law firms that his critics say constitute a conflict of interest. Christie left the meeting after two and a half hours of questioning, against the requests of the Committee's chairman, stating that he had to attend to pressing business in New Jersey.

Claims of partisan attacks[link]

Christie has been criticized for subpoenaing Senator Robert Menendez during his contested 2006 campaign, just two months before the election. Christie's aides have insisted that they initiated the action in response to an article that appeared in ''The Record'', which reported that in 1994, when Menendez was a U.S. Representative, he had leased his former home to a social service agency that he had helped obtain federal financing. The non-profit group paid Menendez more than $300,000 over nine years to rent the building. Menendez claims to have cleared the arrangement with the Congressional ethics office, a step that had also been reported previously by New Jersey newspapers. According to Menendez, just prior to signing the rental lease, he cleared it by phone with a lawyer on the staff of the United States House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct. Following the subpoena, the lawyer, who no longer works with the Committee, came forward to say that while she doesn’t recall the conversation, it probably happened—and that if she were advising Menendez now, she would tell him—as she apparently did then—that there was nothing improper about the arrangement. As of August 2009, nothing has come from the investigation.

Cell phone monitoring and alleged entrapment[link]

In 2005, Christie prosecuted the Hemant Lakhani terrorism case, in which the defendant claimed that he had been entrapped. In that case, Christie's office relied on an informant who had been dismissed by the FBI as unreliable for fabricating claims of terrorist activity. For more than a year, the informant, working with the U.S. attorney's office, solicited Lakhani for access to arms. Lakhani was unable to obtain anything until an undercover agent contacted him and supplied him with a fake missile. In an interview with the public radio program ''This American Life'', Christie brushed off suggestions that Lakhani was entrapped by law enforcement, defending the Lakhani prosecution.

In April 2009, the ACLU publicized records showing that Christie had obtained court orders authorizing warrantless cellphone tracking of people in 79 instances. Christie responded that the practice was legal and court approved. An ACLU attorney stated that federal law does not address cell phone or GPS use in surveillance and added that the ACLU believes a law requiring warrants for such use is needed.

Governor of New Jersey[link]

Christie filed as a candidate for the office of Governor on January 8, 2009. In the primary on June 2, Christie won the Republican nomination with 55% of the vote, defeating conservative opponents Steve Lonegan and Rick Merkt. He then chose Kimberly Guadagno, Monmouth County sheriff, to complete his campaign ticket as a candidate for lieutenant governor. On November 3, Christie defeated Corzine by a margin of 48.5% to 44.9%, with 5.8% of the vote going to independent candidate Chris Daggett.

Christie took office as Governor of New Jersey on January 19, 2010. He chose not to move his family into "Drumthwacket", the official governor's mansion, and instead resides in a private Mendham, New Jersey, residence.

On February 9, 2010, he signed Executive Order No. 12, which placed a 90-day freeze on the Council on Affordable Housing (COAH) and established the Housing Opportunity Task Force to examine the State's affordable housing laws, constitutional obligations, and the effectiveness of the current framework.

On February 11, 2010, Christie signed Executive Order No. 14, which declared a "state of fiscal emergency exists in the State of New Jersey" due to the projected $2.2 billion budget deficit for the current fiscal year (FY 2010). In a speech before a special joint session of the New Jersey Legislature on the same day, Christie addressed the budget deficit and revealed a list of fiscal solutions to close the gap. Christie also suspended funding for the Department of the Public Advocate and called for its elimination. Some Democrats criticized Christie for not first consulting them on his budget cuts and for circumventing the Legislature's role in the budget process. In late June 2011, Christie utilized New Jersey's line item veto to eliminate nearly $1 billion from the proposed budget, signing it into law just hours prior to the July 1, 2011, beginning of the state's fiscal year.

On August 25, 2010, the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services announced $400 million in federal Race to the Top education grants to New Jersey would not be funded due to a clerical error in the state's application made by an unidentified mid-level state official. Christie responded by saying the Obama administration bureaucracy had overstepped its authority and that the error lay in an administration failure to communicate with the New Jersey government. However, information later came to light that the issue had already been raised with Christie's Education Commissioner Bret Schundler, and in response Christie had asked for Schundler's resignation; Schundler initially agreed to resign, but the following morning asked to be fired instead, citing his need to claim unemployment benefits. Schundler maintains that he told Christie the truth and that Christie is misstating what actually occurred. The New Jersey Education Association rebuked Christie by suggesting that his rejection of a compromise worked out by Schundler with the teachers' union on May 27 was to blame.

During his second year in office, Christie signed into law a payroll tax cut that is projected to save workers $190 million in taxes. Effective for calendar year 2012, the tax cut approved by Christie authorizes the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development to calculate a new payroll deduction rate to finance the Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) fund. As a result, most workers will see their TDI income tax reduced from $148 to $61 per year, for a savings of $87 per worker. The changes took effect on January 1, 2012. The authorizing legislation was sponsored by Senator Shirley Turner of Lawrenceville.

On January 23, 2012, Christie filed the first nomination to the New Jersey Supreme Court of an openly gay man, Bruce Harris, and an Asian American, Phillip Kwon. Kwon's nomination was rejected by the Senate Judiciary Committee, the first gubernatorial nominee for the Supreme Court in modern times to fail to be approved.

On February 17, 2012, he vetoed a bill that would have legalized same sex marriage in New Jersey. He stated his belief that such a change requires a constitutional amendment and asked the legislature to provide for a referendum on the issue. He also called for creation of an ombudsman to ensure compliance with the state's existing civil union law.

Continuing the tradition of earlier New Jersey governors since the 1980s, Christie traveled to Israel in April 2012. Media reported his itinerary as including Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Tiberius, and the Golan Heights. The official title given to the trip was "Jersey to Jerusalem Trade Mission: Economic Growth, Diplomacy, Observance". The visit to Israel was Christie's first official overseas trip since taking office. During the visit, which included meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres, Christie commented that "[Jerusalem] has never been better or freer than under Israeli control." From Israel Christie continued with his family to Jordan, as guests of King Abdullah II.

Consideration of presidential run in 2012 election[link]

Christie was the subject of ongoing speculation that he would attempt a run for President of the United States in 2012 by competing in the Republican primaries. He consistently denied any interest in launching a presidential bid. In September 2011, a number of press stories cited unnamed sources indicating Christie was reconsidering his decision to stay out of the race. An Associated Press story dated September 30 indicated a decision on whether he would run for president in 2012 would be made "soon". In a late September speech at the Reagan Library, he had again said he was not a candidate for president, but the speech also coincided with his "reconsideration" of the negative decision. One commentator at that time reviewed reported support from David H. and Charles G. Koch, Kenneth Langone, and others for Christie's potential candidacy. Retired GE CEO Jack Welch went on ''Charlie Rose'' to articulate his and others' support for a candidacy, and Langone went on the interview show October 4.

On October 4, 2011, Christie acknowledged he had in fact reconsidered his decision but then, again, declined to run. It was "for real this time", as one report put it. "Now is not my time," Christie said. "New Jersey, whether you like it or not, you're stuck with me," Christie added in the one-hour Trenton press conference held to announce the decision.

On October 11, 2011, Christie endorsed Mitt Romney for President of the United States.

References[link]

External links[link]

Office of the Governor ''official state site''

Chris Christie Speech at the Reagan Library: Full Text, ''National Review'', September 27, 2011

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Category:1962 births Category:American people of Irish descent Category:American people of Italian descent Category:American people of Sicilian descent Category:Governors of New Jersey Category:Living people Category:New Jersey County Freeholders Category:New Jersey lawyers Category:New Jersey Republicans Category:People from Livingston, New Jersey Category:People from Morris County, New Jersey Category:Republican Party state governors of the United States Category:Seton Hall University School of Law alumni Category:United States Attorneys for the District of New Jersey Category:University of Delaware alumni

da:Chris Christie de:Chris Christie es:Chris Christie fr:Christopher Christie ga:Chris Christie he:כריס כריסטי nl:Chris Christie ja:クリス・クリスティ pl:Chris Christie pt:Chris Christie ro:Chris Christie ru:Кристи, Крис sv:Chris Christie vi:Chris Christie