Lessons for Romney

Worth Clicking: Blasts from the past wound Romney

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July 30, 2010

Lessons for Romney

The Hotline notes that the primary campaigns of gubernatorial hopefuls Rick Snyder (R) in Michigan and Bill Haslam (R) in Tennessee provide three takeaways that could be used as a playbook for a Mitt Romney presidential bid in 2012.

Exploit your funding advantage: "Like Romney, both Snyder and Haslam also have been running on their business backgrounds, and have spent plenty of their own money into the races to propel them into the lead. Romney, likewise, has an early and sizable fundraising edge and can also self-fund."

Run as a businessman: "Snyder's boasting of being a turnaround specialist is almost identical to Romney's expected message, one that will be more business-focused than in '08. The economic recession has hit Michigan as hard as any state, and for Republicans to have a shot at defeating Obama in 2012 (with an economic contrast message), they'll need to put it in play."

Split the base, consolidate moderates: "The GOP base is fired up across the country, but in these races, support is split up between multiple conservative candidates (Wamp/Ramsey in TN,Cox/Hoekstra/Bouchard in MI). Looking ahead, Romney could benefit from a similar scenario, facing a slew of conservatives (Daniels/Thune/Santorum) splitting up attention and the activist vote."

The latest polls show Snyder and Haslam with leads going into their respective primaries on Tuesday.

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

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Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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July 30, 2010