In the days leading up to the New Hampshire primary, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney was assailed by his fellow GOP presidential hopefuls for his work at Bain Capital. Romney’s private equity firm invested in some companies that ended up laying off employees or declaring bankruptcy. While other Bain investments fared much better in job creation during Romney’s tenure as CEO, his opponents are charging that he profited at the expense of normal folks losing their jobs. Texas governor Rick Perry described Romney as a “vulture capitalist” while CEO at Bain. The super PAC supporting former House Speaker Newt Gingrich released a documentary portraying Romney as a corporate raider who destroyed companies, jobs and lives while walking away with millions of dollars. The days building up to the South Carolina primary are indicating that the anti-Romney barrage coming from within the Republican ranks will continue. Romney did nothing to help himself when he strung these sound-byte-ready words together, “I like being able to fire people.” The fact that he was not referring to people but rather to insurance companies who don’t provide good service did not slow down Perry, Gingrich and even Jon Huntsman from pouncing all over the clumsy selection of words.
As some GOP presidential contenders and their surrogates launched an all out attack on Romney for being immoral in his business practices and out-of-touch with main street voters, his poll numbers plunged. The strategy was effective, at least short-term, on many levels. Romney lost support. The crux of his appeal (the business guy who creates jobs) was attacked at its core. Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson cut a $5M check to Gingrich’s PAC Newt Gingrich’s PAC, presumably inspired by a newly found chink in Mitt Romney’s armor.
Ron Paul has suggested that Republicans tone down the rhetoric and remember their free enterprise roots. Newt Gingrich has signaled that perhaps he went too far but only because the strategy may be painting himself as anti free market not because he thinks the attacks aren’t accurate or deserved. Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman have called on Gingrich and Perry to lay off the attacks out of fear the Republican party will appear as being opposed to capitalism. Yet the pro-Gingrich PAC is moving ahead to air the anti-Romney documentary in South Carolina and Mitt Romney can expect a no-holds-barred strategy on this topic from the Obama campaign machine should he become the Republican nominee.
How does Romney beat the rap that he doesn’t relate to normal people and that he’s just a cold-hearted opportunist? The best thing he can do doesn’t involve his business experience but rather his Mormon faith. The same Mormon faith from which he should shy away, according to conventional political wisdom. Mitt Romney should speak openly about how being a Mormon demonstrates his compassion for and understanding of regular people.
Mitt Romney served for 13 years as an unpaid leader of his local Mormon congregation. For five years he was known as Bishop Romney to a ward (Mormon equivalent of a Catholic parish) of probably 300-500 people. He served for eight years as Stake President, the presiding official, also unpaid, over a group of about one dozen wards. Being a Mormon Bishop is about as humanizing an experience as anyone could have. I speak on this subject as a lifelong Mormon who has witnessed first hand the functions of Mormon lay clergy. The local leadership structure of the centrally organized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is identical worldwide. I’ve had dozens of bishops over the years living in six cities across three U.S. states. I also met several bishops while living in Venezuela for two years. Recently, I worked as a close aide to two bishops, a position that Mormons call Executive Secretary. While all bishops were, of course, as different as you would expect their personalities and life experiences to make them, the functions of Mormon bishops are ubiquitous across time and geography. So I speak with confidence about what Mormon bishops do and, therefore, what Mitt Romney would have experienced as a bishop.
Bishops in the Church are responsible for the spiritual and physical welfare of their flock. Bishop Romney would have been directly involved in providing the poor with assistance in the form of food, paying utility and medical bills or covering their house payments during periods of unemployment or other financial distress. Mormon bishops meet one-on-one with indigent church members and discuss ways the church could help by covering short-term financial needs as part of a plan to work towards self-reliance. In other words, Mitt Romney met privately with poor people, would personally assess their immediate needs and then he would secure food and/or give them a check to help pay the bills. Every bishop I’ve known would also offer encouraging words meant to restore hope. No cameras present. No reporters. Just a man volunteering his time late into the evening and a downtrodden congregant trying to work out a tough situation together. This is the story most Mormons have seen in their bishops.
Romney likely also played the role of marriage counselor, dispute resolver and service project coordinator. Mormon bishops notoriously receive phone calls at work and at all hours during weekends and late into the night whenever a church member is in the hospital, or when someone is suddenly homeless after being evicted from their apartment or when a death has occurred. Romney would have had the responsibility to speak at every funeral, visit every sick person, help every unemployed church member find a job and meet with every teenager around their birthday just to check in. Bishop Romney would have attended weekly Sunday morning church leadership meetings, likely starting around 6:00 am along with other local church leaders where they would talk about how to help specific families and individuals who were struggling.
Up until now, many political pundits familiar with Romney’s pastoral background have said the potential downside for him is too great if the conversation turns to Mitt’s Mormonism. As the Los Angeles times reported, all of this “is something that most Americans would admire,” said David Campbell, associate professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame, who is Mormon. “But if he begins to talk about his service, then it would open up all the other questions about his religion.” Romney may need to take his chances that the upside to his Mormon story is now greater than downside risks among evangelicals and liberals who, as groups, view Mormonism negatively. If the key voting block in any general elections, independents, gets turned off by Mitt’s Bain story he’ll need to to show a softer, more compassionate side. The presumptive Republican nominee loses if the focus of the election shifts from a referendum on President Obama and the economy to accusations, however false they may be, of Mitt Romney’s so-called brand of “vulture capitalism.”
Governor Romney recently said that people aren’t voting for a pastor-in-chief. That’s true. Most Americans don’t expect their president to lead the Sunday sermon. But when voters are saturated by the job-killer-in-chief message they might want to hear more about Mitt Romney’s years as the gentle pastor.
