Romney tells voters, 'I offer leadership'

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By Ed Tibbetts | Friday, April 20, 2007 4:01 PM CDT | () comments

(Lauren M. Anderson/Quad-City Times) Marge Hunn of Davenport shakes hands with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Thursday during a meet and greet at the Lodge in Bettendorf.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said in the Quad-Cities on Thursday that he’s excelled at fundraising and has a early strength in Iowa over better-known rivals because he offers “the “leadership to change Washington.”

Romney, who raised the most money in the first three months of 2007 of all the Republican candidates, was making his third trip to the Quad-Cities.

Mentioning former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona by name, Romney said he’s done well “because people people in Iowa who get a chance to see us one by one recognize that I can bring, and my family can bring, something to this country that we need, and that is the leadership to change Washington.”

The former governor of Massachusetts called for an end to the estate tax, extension of President Bush’s tax cuts and for $300 billion in cuts in non-defense domestic discretionary spending over 10 years. He said he’d spend more money on defense, too.

In an interview with the Quad-City Times, he did not offer any specifics about where he’d cut spending, but he said there was duplication in government and that he’d target earmarks.

He also said the growth of entitlement spending needs to be slowed.

Romney has aired television ads pitching his plan to cut spending, which in later years amounts to about 10 percent of non-defense domestic discretionary spending.

“My expectation is we’re going to find an extraordinary amount of unnecessary spending in domestic programs, and even in defense,” he said.

Romney, who is now anti-abortion but in 2002 said he supported abortion rights, has been criticized for changing position on issues.

But if that that mattered to people at The Lodge on Thursday, they didn’t show it. Jo Ann Platter, a 77-year-old retiree from Davenport, said she walked in undecided — and out a Romney supporter.

“He’s a very powerful speaker and he seems very sincere,” she said.

Romney praised the Supreme Court decision this week upholding a ban on the procedure critics call partial-birth abortion.

“My hope is that we will see, over time, the Supreme Court allowing states to enact reasonable pro-life legislation,” he said.

He also won applause from the crowd of more than 300 people when he criticized House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for meeting with Syrian leader Bashar Al-Assad.

“What Nancy Pelosi did was the most divisive, partisan, ill-considered act of any senior government official in this decade,” Romney said.

Democrats have defended Pelosi, saying Republicans also met with the Syrian leader.

Romney’s trip here, and the number of people who showed up, is a demonstration of the effectiveness of his organization in the Quad-Cities.

He made early connections, and donations to the local party.

Romney’s campaign also released a list of local supporters Thursday. Included were several well-known Republican activists. Roby Smith of Davenport, who lost a Statehouse bid last year, is his county chairman.

Also on the list were state Rep. Linda Miller, R-Bettendorf, and former Scott County Supervisor Greg Adamson.

Ed Tibbetts can be contacted at (563) 383-2327 or etibbetts@qctimes.com.