The Daily Background

A series of documents and vintage election coverage from local papers obtained by The Daily Background exposes Mitt Romney’s hypocrisy on two key issues, both of which serve as a litmus test to many social conservatives. Arlen Parsa explains, in this exclusive report…

In 1994, Mitt Romney ran for US Senate, in Massachusetts, seeking to unseat incumbent Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy. Portraying himself as a Republican who was liberal on social issues and conservative on fiscal matters, the local media at the time referred to him as a ‘lib-con.’ Romney never defeated Kennedy, but more than a decade later the retiring Governor is commonly cited as a top-tier Republican candidate for the 2008 GOP Presidential nomination.

A lot has changed since then, however. Specifically: Mr Romney’s stances on the hot-button issue of equal rights for gay Americans.

While running as a a ‘lib-con’ in Massachusetts, Mr Romney openly supported gay rights. In fact, he actively courted the local chapter of the Log Cabin Republicans, a well-known conservative gay rights group. In a letter obtained by The Daily Background and sent from Mr Romney on official campaign letterhead to the group, he requested an official endorsement, saying “I need your support more than ever.” (You can download a PDF copy of the Romney’s letter here.)

However, years later Mr Romney faces a socially conservative primary electorate which he will have to overcome in order to become the GOP’s Presidential nominee. Recognizing this, Mr Romney has changed his stance on equal rights for gay Americans accordingly. In summer of 2006, the Massachusetts Governor (who had already decided not to run for re-election and to run for President instead) was vocal in his support of a conservative-led Constitutional Amendment which would have written anti-gay discrimination into federal law; permanently denying equal rights to gay Americans.

Mr Romney’s apparent stance on abortion has changed as well.

In his failed 1994 Senate bid, Romney was a vocal supporter of abortion rights for American women. He maintained that while as a Mormon he personally think the choice to have an abortion was a good decision, he would not let his own beliefs or religion interfere with how he would legislate, if elected. “As a nation,” Mr Romney said in a 1994 debate with Kennedy, “”I do not impose my beliefs on other people. I will not waver on that.” Mr Romney now wishes to impose his beliefs that abortions are immoral on all Americans, supporting sweeping legislation which would criminalize almost all abortions occurring in the United States.

“I believe that Roe v. Wade has been the law for 20 years, that we should sustain and support it, and I sustain and support that law and the right of a woman to make that choice,” Mr Romney said in the same debate. After his loss, his fellow Republicans chided Romney for supporting a law simply because it was the law. One astute conservative noted after Romney’s defeat in a November 10, 1994 Boston Herald Op-Ed: “The law once said women couldn’t vote, Mitt. It once said blacks couldn’t either, remember? It’s OK to voice contempt for a law you think is wrong.”

Romney is now vehement in his belief that Roe v. Wade ought to be overturned. Even then, his opponent Senator Kennedy seemed to detect that Romney was non-committal on his stance, later joking “On the question of the choice issue, I have supported Roe v. Wade. I am pro-choice; my opponent is multiple choice.”

While Romney sought to define himself as a ‘lib-con’ in the traditionally liberal state of Massachusetts, he managed to provoke a substantial amount of ire from his fellow Republicans. The Conservative Victory Committee, which had raised thousands of dollars in donations for Romney’s campaign, abruptly withdrew their support from him in late October of 1994. After a review of his stances on the issues that mattered to them, they concluded that he had become an “anti-family” liberal. The group, which had already begun to regret having raised money for Romney, sharply criticized the GOP candidate’s views on social issues, ultimately labelling them decidedly “left-wing.”

Perhaps the most ironic moment happened during Romney’s 1994 primary battle with fellow Republican John Lakian who was also vying for the opportunity to unseat Senator Kennedy. Like Romney, Lakian was working to portray himself as an anti-discrimination liberal who supported equal rights for gay Americans. When it was discovered that Lakian had opposed anti-discrimination legislation in the past, Romney seized the opportunity to label his primary opponent a hypocrite on the issue of gay rights.

“You will hear me say the same thing again and again and again and you will not have me taking different positions in different places,” Romney promised.

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You can read a series of vintage 1994 articles from local papers chronicling Romney’s failed Senate bid here.

Filed under: Exclusive, Presidential election, Z-TDB Blog