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Santorum, Romney to Vie for Advantage in Debate Held

Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images

Republican presidential hopefuls Rick Santorum, left, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul during a deabte at the University of South Florida in Tampa on Jan. 23, 2012.

Republican presidential hopefuls Rick Santorum, left, Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul during a deabte at the University of South Florida in Tampa on Jan. 23, 2012. Photographer: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images

 

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Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) — Al Hunt, executive editor for Washington at Bloomberg News and a Bloomberg View columnist, talks about Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s fundraising efforts.
Hunt, speaking on Bloomberg Television’s “InBusiness With Margaret Brennan,” also discusses the outlook for the Republican presidential race. (Al Hunt is a Bloomberg View columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. Source: Bloomberg)

 

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Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) — Al Hunt, executive editor for Washington at Bloomberg News and a Bloomberg View columnist, previews his interview with Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad and talks about former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum.
Hunt’s interview with Conrad airs this weekend on Bloomberg Television’s “Political Capital With Al Hunt.” Hunt speaks with Mark Crumpton on Bloomberg Television’s “Bottom Line.” (Hunt is a Bloomberg View columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. Source: Bloomberg)

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Mitt Romney 2012

Gerald Herbert/AP

Mitt Romney at a campaign rally at Tri-City Christian Academy in Chandler, Arizona, on Feb. 22, 2012.

Mitt Romney at a campaign rally at Tri-City Christian Academy in Chandler, Arizona, on Feb. 22, 2012. Photographer: Gerald Herbert/AP

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Mitt Romney called for a 20 percent
across-the-board cut in individual income tax rates today as
part of an effort by his campaign to turn the focus of the
Republican presidential primaries back to economic issues.

Romney’s plan would lower the top tax rate to 28 percent
for individuals from 35 percent now, cut corporate taxes to 25
percent from 35 percent, eliminate the estate tax and scrap the
alternative minimum tax. It also would limit the deductions,
exemptions and credits that are currently available to higher-
income Americans.

“We are going to cut back on that so we make sure the top
1 percent keeps paying, paying the current share they’re paying
or more,” Romney told a campaign rally in Chandler, Arizona.
“We want middle-income Americans to be the place we focus our
help, because it’s middle-income Americans that have been hurt
by this Obama economy.”

The campaign hasn’t specified how deductions and other tax
breaks for high-income taxpayers would be limited. The top tax
rates on capital gains and dividends would remain at 15 percent.

The plan wouldn’t cost any more than would extending the
Bush-era tax rates that expire at the end of 2012, Glenn Hubbard, a Romney economic adviser, told reporters on a
conference call today. That assertion of revenue neutrality uses
a different definition than the one that nonpartisan
congressional scorekeepers would use.

Stronger Growth

The campaign assumes that some of the revenue will come
from stronger economic growth, not solely from eliminating or
curtailing tax breaks. Hubbard didn’t specify how much of the
offsetting revenue would come from growth.

To offset the cuts and reduce the federal budget deficit,
Romney said he’d trim $500 billion in spending by 2016.

He’s working to regain momentum in the race as he strives
to take back his front-runner status from Rick Santorum before
the Feb. 28 Michigan and Arizona primaries.

As Santorum has surged, social issues have become a central
topic in the race. By releasing his proposal today, hours before
a potentially crucial televised debate tonight in Mesa, Arizona,
Romney is seeking to return the conversation to the economy and
his business background.

‘Welcome to the Party’

Santorum said today Romney was seeking to cut taxes to
levels he has already proposed.

“Welcome to the party, governor, it’s great to have you
along,” Santorum said at a Tea Party rally in Tucson.

Statewide polls show a close contest in Michigan (BEESMI) and that
Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania, is narrowing
Romney’s edge in Arizona (BEESAZ). A Romney loss in Michigan, his boyhood
home, would deal a severe blow to his campaign.

Romney’s announcement also comes as President Barack Obama
called for cutting the U.S. corporate tax rate to 28 percent.
Obama’s plan would remove tax breaks for companies to help
offset lost revenue and make other structural changes to the tax
code, including limits on the deductibility of interest.

Speaking in Arizona this morning, Romney said Obama’s plan
would raise taxes on small businesses that pay personal income
tax rates rather than corporate taxes. Many small businesses –
and some large ones — pay taxes on their profits on their
individual tax returns.

“President Obama’s plan is to raise taxes on those
enterprises,” he told voters gathered in a high school gym.
“My plan is to lower them by 20 percent.”

September Plan

Reducing the top corporate tax rate to 25 percent was a
central point of an economic proposal Romney offered in
September. The former Massachusetts governor’s plan, which would
eliminate taxes on interest, dividends and capital gains for
individuals making $200,000 or less per year, had come under
criticism over a lack of details.

Tonight’s debate on CNN — which will include former U.S.
House Speaker Newt Gingrich and U.S. Representative Ron Paul of
Texas — will be the last direct exchange among the candidates
scheduled before Super Tuesday on March 6, when 11 states hold
contests that should play a major role in determining who
secures the Republican nomination.

For Santorum, 53, it is a chance to reintroduce himself to
voters who may have written off his candidacy weeks ago when he
was lagging in polls and fundraising. Romney, 64, is trying to
reinvigorate his bid and reiterate his campaign theme that he’s
a strong and steady executive best positioned to defeat Obama in
November’s election.

Gingrich, Paul

Gingrich, 68, is pressing for the type of strong debate
performance that periodically has boosted his candidacy and that
he needs now to gain some momentum heading into Super Tuesday.
Paul, 76, also will be looking ahead to the March 6 contests,
which include caucuses that give supporters attracted by his
libertarian agenda stressing a limited federal government their
best chance of accruing convention delegates.

The importance of the Michigan primary is underscored by
escalating advertising by political action committees aligned
with Santorum or Romney.

A new commercial being aired in Michigan by the Red White
and Blue Fund, a super-PAC supporting Santorum, charges that
Romney increased spending, taxes and fees as governor of
Massachusetts and implemented a “blueprint” for the U.S.
health-care law.

“How can Mitt Romney beat Barack Obama when, on the vital
decisions, they’re not much different?” a narrator asks.

Michigan Ad Buy

The group, which can raise and spend unlimited amounts on
Santorum’s behalf, purchased an additional $600,000 in
commercial time in Michigan, spokesman Stuart Roy said
yesterday. That brings the super-PAC’s total expenditures on the
state’s airwaves to boost Santorum to about $1.3 million, he
said.

Restore our Future, the pro-Romney super-PAC, also began
airing new negative ads yesterday in Michigan, according to New
York-based Kantar Media’s CMAG, which tracks advertising.

The commercial attacks Santorum for voting during his time
in Congress to raise the federal debt-ceiling and for securing
federal funds for parochial spending projects known as earmarks.
It also criticizes Santorum’s 2002 Senate vote to authorize ex-
convicts to vote in federal elections.

Romney’s campaign and Restore Our Future spent $810,980 on
broadcast television ads in Michigan as of Feb. 18, compared
with what was then $262,260 by Santorum’s campaign and Red White
and Blue Fund, CMAG data show.

‘Radical Islamists’

Santorum, in remarks yesterday at a party luncheon in
Phoenix, highlighted what he termed “a track record of cutting
spending and taking on the big entitlements,” of fighting
“radical Islamists” and “of standing up for the basic
foundational pillars of our society: faith and family.”

He drew implicit contrasts with Romney and Gingrich,
calling himself an “authentic conservative” and saying: “I’m
not a manager. I’m not a visionary. I’m a guy from a steel town
who grew up understanding what made this country great.”

At a rally last night in Phoenix, Santorum indirectly
responded to a fresh focus on a 2008 speech he gave in which he
said Satan was targeting America.

“I’ll defend everything I’ll say, because it comes from
here,” Santorum said, pointing to his heart. He compared his
sometimes strong language to when Ronald Reagan, during his
presidency, branded the former Soviet Union as an “evil
empire” and was criticized for doing so.

Running-Mate Promise

Romney yesterday touted his commitment to socially
conservative principles such as opposing abortion rights.

“My vice presidential nominee will be pro-life,” he told
voters in Shelby Township, Michigan, when asked about his
running-mate. “If I’m fortunate enough to become the nominee, I
will also choose someone who is conservative to the core.”

In Michigan, where Romney’s father served as governor,
Santorum’s support rose after he swept contests in Colorado,
Minnesota and Missouri on Feb. 7 — victories that also spurred
the increase in his national backing. Polls in the last few days
in Michigan have shown a neck-and-neck race between the two.

In Arizona, Romney leads Santorum by 36 percent to 32
percent, according to a CNN/Time/ORC poll. The Feb. 17-20 survey
of likely voters in the Republican primary has an error margin
of plus-or-minus 4.5 percentage points. Most other recent polls
showed Romney with a larger lead.

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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Richard Cordray

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

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The U.S. Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau is starting an inquiry into bank checking
account overdraft policies and may initiate related enforcement
actions during the probe, director Richard Cordray said today.

“With today’s technologies, consumers have more
opportunities to access their checking accounts and cause
overdrafts,” Cordray said in an e-mailed statement. “But
overdraft practices have the capacity to inflict serious
economic harm on the people who can least afford it.”

Large banks such as JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Wells Fargo &
Co. (WFC) as well as smaller institutions rely on overdrafts for
revenue in retail banking. Banks and credit unions were set to
charge customers about $38 billion from overdraft fees in 2011,
according to a Sept. 15 estimate by Moebs Services, a Lake
Bluff, Illinois-based economic research firm.

While it is studying the issue, Cordray warned that the
bureau will use its enforcement powers against banks that trick
customers into to choosing potentially expensive overdraft
protection.

“The bureau plans to take action against financial
institutions that exploit consumers with deceptive marketing
about opting in to overdraft or other unlawful overdraft
practices,” Cordray said during a speech at Hunter College’s
Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute in New York. “It is
wrong to confuse consumers deliberately for financial gain.”

In 2009, the Federal Reserve required that consumers opt-in
to overdraft programs rather than be enrolled by default.

Overdrafts as Loans

Overdrafts occur when consumers spend or withdraw more
money than is available in their checking accounts, whether
through the use of debit cards, checks, ATM withdrawals or
direct debits, known as ACH transactions. Banks typically charge
a fee when balances go below zero, and sometimes treat the
amount of the overdraft as an interest-bearing loan.

John P. Carey, managing director for global consumer
banking, governance and external affairs at Citibank, defended
overdraft policies.

“Our customers find overdraft protection services for
checks and ACH transactions to be of value,” Carey said during
a panel discussion after Cordray’s speech.

Citibank never authorizes a transaction at an ATM or point-
of-sale debit card if the money is not available, Carey said,
though it does so for checks and ACH transactions. Many
customers prefer that to, for example, the consequences of a
bounced check, such as damage to their credit scores or a fee
from a merchant.

Sequencing Transactions

The bureau will request data from banks, and input from the
public on how the ordering of transactions affects how much
consumers pay, the agency said in the statement. Banks have
sometimes debited customers’ accounts not in the order of the
transactions, but with the highest amount first, so as to
overdraw the account as quickly as possible and incur fees and
interest.

The agency will also examine the quality of information
consumers receive on overdraft programs, bank marketing
campaigns on overdrafts, and how young and low-income persons
are affected by overdrafts, the bureau said.

Finally, the bureau is seeking feedback on a sample
“penalty fee box” that could appear on checking account
statements and state what fees consumers pay.

The bureau is asking for public comment within about 60
days. It did not name the banks from which it is obtaining data.
Bureau spokeswoman Jen Howard said the inquiry on overdraft
would be completed this year.

Other Agencies’ Rules

Other regulators have imposed various rules that have
limited the application of overdraft programs or affected their
design. Cordray criticized the results while promising the
consumer bureau would take the initiative itself.

“We plan to examine current overdraft practices, hear from
consumers about their experiences, study the impact of prior
guidance, consult with our fellow regulatory agencies, and then
assess and determine the best policies for the future,” Cordray
said.

Joint guidance by federal regulators encouraged best
practices in the field, but they “have not been widely adopted
by banks,” Cordray said.

In 2010 the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation approved
guidance forcing banks it regulates to steer heavy users of
overdrafts into cheaper forms of credit, a move that drew strong
opposition from community banks. Cordray noted that “it applies
only to the subset of banks that are actually supervised by the
FDIC.”

Fees Up 17%

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency proposed its
own guidance last year, which would cover big national banks
such as JPMorgan or Wells. That plan has not yet been finalized,
Cordray noted.

The average overdraft fee ranged from $30 to $35 in 2011
and has increased by 17 percent over the past five years,
according to the consumer bureau. A 2008 study by the FDIC found
that consumers who overdrew their accounts 20 or more times
annually paid an average of $1,610 in fees.

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Barack Obama

Mike Siegel/Pool/The Seattle Times/AP

President Barack Obama embraces June McKiernan at a Boeing 787 factory on Feb. 17, 2012 in Everett, Washington.

President Barack Obama embraces June McKiernan at a Boeing 787 factory on Feb. 17, 2012 in Everett, Washington. Photographer: Mike Siegel/Pool/The Seattle Times/AP

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President Barack Obama will try to
head off the political impact of rising gasoline prices as
Republicans vow to make the price at the pump an issue in the
2012 election campaign.

Obama plans events this week focusing on his
administration’s efforts to expand domestic exploration and
development of alternative energy sources to combat cyclical
spikes in gas prices.

The price rise, driven in part by increased tensions over
Iran’s nuclear program and higher demand as the U.S. recovery
strengthens, is the one negative in recent economic data that
have enhanced Obama’s political position. The cost of gasoline
confronts voters daily.

“Gas prices will be the number one issue by summertime,”
U.S. Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House
Republicans’ chief vote-counter, said in an interview.

Obama’s political team has been preparing to counter
Republican attacks since the administration denied a permit for
TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone XL oil pipeline, White House
officials said. The renewed focus on what Obama has described as
an “all-of-the-above” energy strategy kicks off with a speech
tomorrow at the University of Miami in Florida.

White House awareness of the political impact was
illustrated yesterday when the president mentioned higher gas
prices at a White House event promoting the extension of the
payroll tax cut through year’s end.

Typical American Family

Obama said the $40 increase each two-week pay period for a
typical American family “helps to pay the rent, the groceries,
the rising cost of gas — which is on a lot of people’s minds
right now.”

The White House press secretary, Jay Carney, came to his
daily press briefing armed with statistics about domestic
exploration and said Obama favors various forms of energy,
including higher fuel-efficiency standards, nuclear reactor
development and alternative energy research.

“There are no magic solutions to rising oil prices and the
pain that Americans feel at the pump,” Carney said. He said the
president is “very aware” of how global oil prices affect U.S.
families.

Crude oil for April delivery gained 7 cents to $106.32 a
barrel at 11:15 a.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The
contract earlier rose to $106.47, the highest since May 5.

Obama’s Message

Obama’s message will draw largely from previous speeches
and proposals, officials said. He will attribute elevated prices
in part to high demand globally, particularly in China,
according to one of the officials, who briefed reporters on
condition of anonymity.

He will discuss the steps his administration has taken to
increase domestic production of oil and natural gas, raise fuel
efficiency standards and promote new construction of nuclear
facilities, officials said.

“The United States of America cannot afford to bet our
long-term prosperity and our long-term security on a resource
that will eventually run out,” Obama said at Georgetown
University in Washington almost a year ago.

The average price for regular gasoline at the pump was
$3.57 yesterday, according to AAA data. That’s up from $3.17 a
year ago. Prices are the highest ever for this time of year
before the U.S. summer season, when consumption rises.

Stronger Economy

Rising gas prices aside, other signs point to an improving
economy. The Conference Board’s index of U.S. leading indicators
rose in January, the unemployment rate declined for a fourth
consecutive month to 8.3 percent in January, and claims for
jobless benefits dropped in the week ending Feb. 11 to the
lowest level since 2008.

The Republican presidential candidates are turning to
energy to attack Obama.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said this week that
Obama’s energy policies “exist in a fantasy world where we’re
all going to end up buying an electric car.”

“His policy has been outrageously anti-American energy,”
Gingrich said in an interview on “CBS This Morning.” “The
high price of gasoline is a direct result of Obama.”

In advance of a multistate round of primaries on March 6,
Gingrich is buying advertising time in key cities for a 28-
minute speech entitled “$2.50 per Gallon Gasoline, Energy
Independence and Jobs,” according to his campaign.

Environmental Policies

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum blames Obama’s
environmental policies for helping to drive up gasoline prices.

At a rally last night in Phoenix, Santorum accused Obama of
favoring higher gasoline prices to force Americans to drive less
as a way to cut greenhouse gas emissions. He said Obama also has
“systematic plan” to stifle domestic oil and gas production.

“The president of the United States has done everything
possible to shut down energy production,” Santorum said.

While administration officials dismissed Gingrich’s
criticism yesterday, the former speaker’s pledge to bring down
gas prices to $2.50 a gallon within the first year of his
presidency could resonate with voters if gas prices remain high
through the November election, said Clyde Wilcox, a government
professor at Georgetown University.

“When people really, really notice it, it becomes an
issue,” Wilcox said. People “kind of get used to the $3.50 to
$3.90 range,” he said.

Canadian Oil

Carney rebutted criticism of Obama’s decision on
TransCanada’s bid to build a $7 billion oil pipeline from
Alberta’s oil sands to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast.

He said that the administration rejected a Congress-imposed
deadline, not the pipeline, and that Republicans politicized the
issue after being on “the wrong side” of last year’s fight
over extending the payroll tax cut.

Carney said U.S. oil production has risen each year since
Obama took office and is at its highest in eight years. He said
the administration has opened “millions of new acres for oil
and gas exploration” as part of a commitment to expand
“responsible domestic production.”

The administration’s higher automobile fuel-efficiency
standards over a decade will almost double efficiency and cut
oil consumption by 12 million barrels, Carney said.

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Barack Obama

Jim Bryant/UPI/LANDOV

President Barack Obama passes a 787 Dreamliner at the Boeing assembly facility in Everett, Washington on Feb. 17, 2012.

President Barack Obama passes a 787 Dreamliner at the Boeing assembly facility in Everett, Washington on Feb. 17, 2012. Photographer: Jim Bryant/UPI/LANDOV

 

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Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) — Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum, talks about the Obama administration’s expected proposal to lower the U.S. corporate tax rate.
The administration will propose today reducing the corporate tax rate to 28 percent from 35 percent along with removing tax breaks for companies to help offset lost revenue, an administration official said. Holtz-Eakin speaks with Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television’s “In the Loop.” (Source: Bloomberg)

 

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Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) — Greg Valliere, chief political strategist at the Potomac Research Group, talks about the Obama administration’s expected plan to lower the U.S. corporate tax rate.
The administration will propose today reducing the corporate tax rate to 28 percent from 35 percent along with removing tax breaks for companies to help offset lost revenue, an administration official said. Valliere speaks with Erik Schatzker and Michael McKee on Bloomberg Television’s “InsideTrack.” (Source: Bloomberg)

 

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Feb. 22 (Bloomberg) — David Walker, chief executive officer of Comeback America Initiative and a former U.S. comptroller general, talks about the Obama administration’s expected plan to lower the U.S. corporate tax rate.
The administration will propose today reducing the corporate tax rate to 28 percent from 35 percent along with removing tax breaks for companies to help offset lost revenue, an administration official said. Miller speaks with Erik Schatzker and Michael McKee on Bloomberg Television’s “InsideTrack.” (Source: Bloomberg)

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Barack Obama

Scott Olson/Getty Images

President Barack Obama at the Master Lock factory on Feb. 15, 2012 in Milwaukee.

President Barack Obama at the Master Lock factory on Feb. 15, 2012 in Milwaukee. Photographer: Scott Olson/Getty Images

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Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner

Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, seen here, told the House Ways and Means Committee on Feb. 15, “There is, I hope, more room for common ground on this, and we need to use this opportunity now to start to lay the foundation for the fundamental change ahead.”

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, seen here, told the House Ways and Means Committee on Feb. 15, “There is, I hope, more room for common ground on this, and we need to use this opportunity now to start to lay the foundation for the fundamental change ahead.” Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

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The Obama administration will
propose today reducing the U.S. corporate tax rate to 28 percent
from 35 percent along with removing tax breaks for companies to
help offset lost revenue, an administration official said.

The plan would eliminate dozens of tax breaks and reshape
the current manufacturing deduction to reduce the tax rate on
manufacturing to 25 percent, according to the official, who
outlined the proposal on condition of anonymity because it
hadn’t been released. The restructured tax code would still
include incentives for research and development and renewable
energy.

President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner have said corporate taxation is an issue that could
provide an area for agreement with congressional Republicans and
business groups.

“There is, I hope, more room for common ground on this,
and we need to use this opportunity now to start to lay the
foundation for the fundamental change ahead,” Geithner told the
House Ways and Means Committee on Feb. 15.

The plan may face opposition from Republicans who want net
tax cuts, corporations who say the rate reduction should be
deeper and companies that would lose tax breaks they now enjoy.

Business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,
have spent the past three years criticizing the administration’s
approach to international taxation, which has focused on making
it harder for companies to defer U.S. taxes on income earned
outside the country.

International Competitiveness

“Countries around the world are promoting the
international competitiveness of their companies and creating
jobs by adopting modern tax laws that enhance the ability of
their locally headquartered companies to serve foreign
markets,” a coalition of business groups wrote to Obama on Feb.
8. They expressed concern Obama favors proposals that “would go
in exactly the opposite direction,” raising taxes on U.S.
companies with overseas operations.

Geithner told the Ways and Means Committee the
administration will propose retaining breaks that directly
support U.S. investment at home. Treasury officials previously
said the research and development tax credit should survive a
tax-code overhaul.

“We’ll have a very important debate about which of those
types of incentives we should preserve, which ones we can’t
afford any longer,” Geithner said.

Tougher Proposals

He also said the administration’s proposals would be
“tougher” in some ways than those outlined by congressional
Republicans.

The current U.S. corporate tax rate is the second-highest
marginal rate in the world, behind Japan. Effective tax rates on
U.S. companies are below 30 percent, in line with the tax burden
in other major economies. Manufacturers in most industries can
deduct 9 percent of their earnings from domestic production,
meaning that they already get a lower tax rate.

Companies such as United Parcel Service Inc. (UPS) and Macy’s Inc.
have been urging a lowering of the corporate tax rate. Other
companies, including Apple Inc. and Google Inc., have been
lobbying for a tax holiday on profits earned outside the U.S.

Any change that isn’t a net tax cut would tend to raise
taxes on companies that benefit from many tax breaks, such as
drugmakers and technology companies, while lowering payments for
retailers and others that don’t get many tax breaks under the
current system.

Corporate Tax Revenue

The U.S. expects to collect $236.8 billion in corporate
income taxes, or 1.5 percent of gross domestic product, in the
fiscal year ending Sept. 30.

The administration has been working on a corporate tax
overhaul for more than a year. In his 2011 State of the Union
address, Obama blamed “a parade of lobbyists” for the complex
tax code that leaves companies with disparate tax rates.

“Get rid of the loopholes,” he said. “Level the playing
field. And use the savings to lower the corporate tax rate for
the first time in 25 years — without adding to our deficit. It
can be done.”

This year, the tax portion of Obama’s State of the Union
speech focused on international tax avoidance and said he wanted
to remove tax provisions that he said encourage companies to
move jobs outside the country.

“From now on, every multinational company should have to
pay a basic minimum tax,” he said. “And every penny should go
towards lowering taxes for companies that choose to stay here
and hire here in America.”

Minimum Tax

The administration’s budget, released Feb. 13, didn’t
provide details on the minimum tax. It included corporate tax
provisions Congress has blocked.

Representative Dave Camp, a Michigan Republican who heads
the House Ways and Means Committee, has released part of a
proposed corporate tax overhaul. Camp proposed a 25 percent top
rate and changes to the international tax system that would let
companies avoid paying U.S. taxes on most of the income they
earn outside the country.

Last week, Camp urged Geithner to propose a comprehensive
tax-code overhaul that would include changes to corporate and
individual taxation.

The proposals from the administration and Camp are designed
to not increase the federal budget deficit, in contrast with
policies promoted by the Republican presidential candidates.

Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, wants to
reduce the corporate tax rate to 25 percent before eliminating
any tax breaks. Rick Santorum, the former Pennsylvania senator,
wants to cut the rate to 17.5 percent and eliminate corporate
taxes for manufacturers.

Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, wants to cut the
rate to 12.5 percent and let companies write off all capital
investments immediately.

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The biggest U.S. prosecution of
individuals accused of foreign bribery was dropped after the
government failed to win convictions of 10 people who went to
trial among the 22 charged in the case.

The Justice Department yesterday asked a federal judge in
Washington to dismiss the indictment, which originally accused
the security-industry officials of planning to make payments to
a federal agent posing as a representative of the West African
nation of Gabon to secure a stake in a fake $15 million deal for
weapons and security gear.

It was the first time the government used a sting operation
involving undercover techniques to charge violations of the
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

“I for one hope that this very long and very expensive
ordeal will be a true learning experience for the department and
the FBI as they regroup to investigate and prosecute FCPA cases
against individuals” U.S. District Judge Richard Leon said
while granting the government’s request. He had earlier told
prosecutors of his concerns about their “aggressive conspiracy
theory” of the case, he said.

Courtroom Setbacks

The dismissal adds to courtroom setbacks for the government
in FCPA cases. Last month, a federal judge in Texas acquitted a
former manager at a Texas unit of Zurich-based ABB Ltd. who was
accused of bribing Mexican officials. A related case was
dismissed last year by a judge who said the jury verdict
convicting two men at an electricity tower company of bribing
Mexican officials was tainted by prosecutor misconduct in “a
sloppy, incomplete and notably over-zealous investigation.”

In a crackdown on overseas bribery that started during the
Bush administration, the government settled 57 cases against
companies from 2005 through 2011 without trial, reaping $4.1
billion for the U.S. treasury, according to Justice Department
data. A push to prosecute more individual defendants during the
same period produced mixed results.

Of the 93 people charged over the past seven years,
including the defendants in the sting case, 41 pleaded guilty
and six were convicted at trial by the end of 2011, according to
data by Shearman & Sterling LLP. Through 2011, four defendants
were fugitives, one was exonerated and three had their cases
dismissed. The remainder are awaiting trial. The 31 defendants
who’ve been sentenced got an average of 2 years and 2 months in
prison.

Remaining Defendants

In seeking to end the so-called Gabon case, the government
said in court papers it “carefully considered” the outcomes of
the first two trials of 10 defendants and the impact of rulings
in those cases on the remaining defendants, as well as the
resources needed to continue with “another four or more”
trials.

The first trial of four defendants resulted in a hung jury
in July after more than six days of deliberations. The four-
month trial of six others ended last month with three acquittals
and the jury unable to reach a verdict on the rest.

Marc Morales, one of the defendants in the second trial,
told reporters yesterday after the hearing that he was “happy
to move on with my life and spend time with my family.” Asked
how much money he spent defending against the charges, Morales
said, “more than I have.”

The jury could not reach a verdict on Morales.

“If, as the DOJ said, there’s a sea of global corruption,
it’s much wiser for them to use their resources to prosecute
those actual crimes, rather than pursuing this fictitious sting
operation,” Eric Bruce of Kobre & Kim LLP, who represented
defendant Pankesh Patel, said in an interview.

Laura Sweeney, a Justice Department spokeswoman, declined
to comment beyond yesterday’s filing.

Videotaped Meetings

The case stemmed from a three-year investigation involving
an informant who had pleaded guilty in an earlier bribery case.
Investigators recorded telephone calls and videotaped meetings
with Federal Bureau of Investigation agents posing as
representatives of Gabon, sub-Saharan Africa’s fifth-biggest oil
producer.

The government said the defendants agreed to pay a $3
million commission for the business, half of which they were
told would be paid to the country’s defense minister.

Assistant U.S. Attorney General Lanny Breuer, who oversees
the Justice Department’s criminal division, has cited the Gabon
case, along with the Galleon Group LLC insider-trading probe, as
examples of the government using wiretaps and other undercover
techniques to pursue white-collar criminals.

‘FCPA World’

“I think the decision is based solely on the facts of this
case and will not have widespread impact on the FCPA world,”
said Paul Pelletier, a partner at Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris
Glovsky & Popeo PC in Washington who was a supervisor in the
fraud section of the department’s criminal division when the
case was filed.

Pelletier said sting cases are hard for prosecutors because
investigators rely on cooperating individuals “with all their
warts.” The government in the future may “insert” undercover
agents into an investigation at an earlier stage so targets can
work through them rather than the informant, he said.

The government’s case was put together through Richard Bistrong, a former executive from Armor Holdings Inc. He pleaded
guilty in 2010 to bribing officials of the United Nations and
the Netherlands to obtain contracts for body armor and pepper
spray, according to court papers. He has yet to be sentenced.

Bistrong identified possible targets for the government,
according to court papers. Working with the FBI, he recorded
telephone and in-person meetings with the defendants. He also
introduced them to Pascal Latour, an FBI agent posing as a
representative for Gabon’s defense minister.

Cocaine Addiction

Bistrong, in testimony given during the second trial,
admitted to having a cocaine addiction and to filing false tax
returns and other crimes.

Defense lawyers said the lead FBI agent shared cigars,
gifts and meals with Bistrong, compromising the government’s
investigation. The relationship was documented in text messages
and e-mails shown to the jury.

U.S. prosecutor Joey Lipton told Leon that the government
has contacted lawyers for three men who pleaded guilty in the
case and will discuss with them whether those pleas can remain
in place.

The case is U.S. v. Goncalves, 09-cr-00335, U.S. District
Court, District of Columbia (Washington).

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Mitt Romney

Michael Nelson/EPA/Landov

Mitt Romney at the Red Rock Summerlin Ballroom in Las Vegas on Feb. 4, 2012.

Mitt Romney at the Red Rock Summerlin Ballroom in Las Vegas on Feb. 4, 2012. Photographer: Michael Nelson/EPA/Landov

 

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Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) — Al Hunt, executive editor for Washington at Bloomberg News and a Bloomberg View columnist, talks about Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s fundraising efforts.
Hunt, speaking on Bloomberg Television’s “InBusiness With Margaret Brennan,” also discusses the outlook for the Republican presidential race. (Al Hunt is a Bloomberg View columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. Source: Bloomberg)

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Ron Paul

Max Whittaker/The New York Times/Redux

Ron Paul at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nev., Feb. 2, 2012.

Ron Paul at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Nev., Feb. 2, 2012. Photographer: Max Whittaker/The New York Times/Redux

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Restore Our Future, a U.S. political
action committee supporting Republican presidential candidate
Mitt Romney, started this month with about $16 million in cash -
- 26 times more than its chief competitor’s camp.

Red White and Blue Fund, the super-PAC supporting former
U.S. Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, raised $2.1 million
in January and finished the month with $626,607 to spend. Even
so, the PAC has continued to raise money in February and today
announced an additional $600,000 advertising buy in Michigan,
Romney’s birthplace and the site of a Feb. 28 primary.

The emergence of super-PACs has altered the dynamics of the
presidential campaign, aiding candidates when they run short of
money or running negative ads so the White House hopefuls can
stay positive.

Restore Our Future has helped Romney “respond
overwhelmingly and negatively to a challenger that threatens”
his lead, said Stephen Wayne, a professor of government at
Georgetown University in Washington.

With the additional ad buy, the Red White and Blue Fund
will have spent about $1.3 million on Santorum’s behalf in
Michigan, said Stuart Roy, a spokesman for the group.

Sources of Cash

More than three-fourths of the pro-Santorum money in
January came from two donors — William Dore, president of Dore
Energy Corp. in Lake Charles, Louisiana, who contributed $1
million; and Foster Friess, a fund manager based in Jackson
Hole, Wyoming, who donated $669,000 last month after giving
$331,000 to the PAC last year, bringing his total to $1 million.

The pro-Romney group, which raised $6.6 million last month,
also began February with about seven times as much in the bank
as a super-PAC supporting former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich. That PAC, Winning Our Future, had $2.4 million coming
into February. Almost all of its $11 million in donations last
month came from Sheldon Adelson, chairman of the Las Vegas Sands
Corp. (LVS), and his wife, Miriam, each of whom gave $5 million, and
Texas billionaire Harold Simmons, who donated $500,000.

Priorities USA Action, which backs President Barack Obama’s
re-election and was founded by former White House aides, raised
just $58,816 in January and ended the month with $1.3 million in
the bank. The lack of cash may have helped spur Obama’s campaign
manager, Jim Messina, to e-mail supporters on Feb. 6 that White
House and Cabinet officials would begin helping the super-PAC
raise money to take on Republican groups.

40 Donors

Unlike the pro-Santorum and pro-Gingrich super-PACs, which
have been dependent on a few wealthy individual donors, the
super-PAC backing Romney raised most of its money, $5.8 million,
from 40 donors who gave at least $50,000 each, according to a
filing the group submitted yesterday to the Federal Election
Commission. Bruce Kovner, co-founder of the New York-based hedge
fund Caxton Associates LP, and two other people gave $500,000
each.

The figures were released as Romney, a former Massachusetts
governor, campaigned in Cincinnati, focusing on the economy and
criticizing Santorum for voting to raise the debt ceiling
without offsetting spending cuts. “When Republicans go to
Washington and spend like Democrats, you’re going to have a lot
of spending,” Romney said.

Restore Our Future commercials have made similar charges
against Santorum. The super-PACs aren’t allowed to coordinate
with the candidates, yet they are often run by allies, including
former staff members, who mount helpful advertising campaigns.

‘Attack Dogs’

“They have been the attack dogs in this year’s cycle,
helping to make or seal the fates of various contenders in
several contests,” said Costas Panagopoulos, director of the
Center for Electoral Politics and Democracy at Fordham
University in New York.

They have also helped Gingrich and Santorum compete with
the better-funded Romney through the early primaries and
caucuses. Both Santorum, who won Iowa, and Gingrich, who won
South Carolina, saw their campaign fundraising tick up last
month after their victories.

“They’ve helped facilitate a robust, competitive primary
campaign by giving candidates like Newt Gingrich, who may
otherwise have run out of steam, additional visibility and time
to build up a viable campaign,” said David Primo, a political
science professor at the University of Rochester in New York.

Restore Our Future spent more than $11 million in January
to buy advertisements as the primary season officially began.
That made up most of the almost $14 million spent during the
month. Money also went to direct mail, polling and calls to
voters.

Top-Dollar Donors

The group continued to benefit from Romney’s ties to the
financial world as a former private equity executive. David Tepper of Appaloosa Management LP gave Restore Our Future
$375,000 last month. The group also got $250,000 from Julian Robertson, co-founder of the hedge fund Tiger Management LLC.

J.W. Marriott Jr., the chairman and chief executive officer
of the hotel operator Marriott International Inc. (MAR), and Richard Marriott, chairman of Host Hotels & Resorts Inc. (HST), gave $250,000
apiece. Both companies are based in Bethesda, Maryland. Palo
Alto, California-based Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) CEO Meg Whitman
contributed $100,000.

Spreading the Wealth

Simmons, who gave $500,000 to the pro-Gingrich super-PAC,
also gave $100,000 to Restore Our Future. He and his Dallas-
based holding company, Contran Corp., have spread their money
around this political season, also giving $1 million to the
super-PAC supporting the presidential campaign of Texas Governor
Rick Perry, who dropped out of the race last month. In addition,
Simmons and Contran gave $12 million to American Crossroads, a
super-PAC advised by Karl Rove, the top political aide to former
President George W. Bush.

A super-PAC supporting Romney rival Ron Paul, a Texas
congressman, said it raised $2.4 million last month, with $1.7
million coming from Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal Inc.,
now owned by San Jose, California-based eBay Inc. The group,
Endorse Liberty, spent more than $2.9 million during the month
and ended up with $60,181 in cash.

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Michelle Obama

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

First lady Michelle Obam, center, poses with employees of Gonzalez Northgate Market on Feb. 1, 2012 in Inglewood, California.

First lady Michelle Obam, center, poses with employees of Gonzalez Northgate Market on Feb. 1, 2012 in Inglewood, California. Photographer: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images

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Michelle Obama is being billed as
the featured attraction in house parties her husband’s re-
election campaign is organizing around the country tomorrow to
try to boost his support among women.

The first lady is to appear via conference call at the
“Women for Obama” gatherings, President Barack Obama’s re-
election campaign said in an e-mail sent to supporters last
night.

Michelle Obama, serving as honorary chairwoman of Women for
Obama, will “deliver a message just for us about the progress
we’re making together and the work ahead in the months to
come,” according to the e-mail, which said that “hearing from
the First Lady is sure to get us fired up.”

The house parties are an example of the more visible role
Michelle Obama is taking in her husband’s re-election campaign.
She spoke at Democratic Party fundraisers in Los Angeles on Jan.
31 and Feb. 1 while in California for appearances on “The
Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and Ellen DeGeneres’ show to
promote her “Let’s Move” anti-obesity program.

The house parties also follow the Obama administration’s
rule to provide women who work for religion-affiliated hospitals
and universities access to free contraception through their
health insurance.

Accomplishments for Women

The e-mail mentions access to contraception without a co-
pay among the administration’s accomplishments for women, in
addition to the president’s signing of the “Lilly Ledbetter
Fair Pay Act” and the 2010 health-care overhaul that includes
mammogram coverage and a restriction on charging women higher
premiums than men.

Roman Catholic bishops and Republican lawmakers and
presidential candidates have opposed the contraception rule,
while women’s advocacy groups have embraced it.

Obama has said he didn’t intend for the rule to be used as
a wedge issue in the campaign, while NARAL Pro-Choice America,
an organization that defends abortion rights, has been airing
radio ads in the battleground states of Colorado, Florida,
Virginia and Wisconsin, promoting the policy as an example of
Obama’s commitment to women.

Church Leaders’ Concerns

A Feb. 10 compromise Obama offered that would force health
insurers, and not church-affiliated charities, to pay for
contraceptives for employees of those institutions has shifted
the debate away from a religious-freedom argument that carried
more political risks for the president. Some church leaders
still have concerns because their facilities are self-insured,
which could mean they would have to pay the costs.

At the Jan. 31 fundraiser in Los Angeles, Michelle Obama
promoted expanded coverage for women in the health-care law,
without mentioning contraception coverage explicitly.

She said that in the face of efforts to repeal the broader
law, “we have to ask ourselves: Are we going to stand by and
let that happen, or are we going to stand up to those insurance
companies? Are we going to let them refuse to cover things like
cancer screenings, prenatal care; things that save money, but
more importantly, save lives?”

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Newt Gingrich 2012

Evan Vucci/AP

Newt Gingrich during a campaign stop at the Tulare World Ag Expo on Feb. 14, 2012 in Tulare, California.

Newt Gingrich during a campaign stop at the Tulare World Ag Expo on Feb. 14, 2012 in Tulare, California. Photographer: Evan Vucci/AP

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A political action committee
supporting Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich
burned through most of the $10 million it received from
billionaire casino executive Sheldon Adelson and his wife in
January.

While most of the money was spent on television, radio and
Internet advertising, almost $300,000 was paid to two
consultants who’d received only travel expenses amounting to
about $1,600 in December.

The payments record was included in the organization’s
January financial disclosure report, filed with the Federal
Election Commission yesterday. The report also shows that after
a 14-percentage-point loss to Mitt Romney in the Florida primary
at month’s end, the former House speaker’s campaign and the
super-PAC supporting him were both left with little money to
proceed in the next round of races.

The pro-Gingrich PAC, Winning Our Future, began February
with $2.4 million in the bank after raising $11 million and
spending $9.8 million in January, the FEC report shows. The
committee has one-seventh the $16.3 million available to Restore
Our Future, a group independently backing Romney.

Gingrich Campaign Debts

The Gingrich campaign was even more hard-pressed for cash.
Though it was second to Romney in January fundraising among the
Republican candidates, Gingrich’s campaign spent more than it
raised during the month and began February with almost as much
in campaign debt –$1.7 million — as cash in the bank — $1.8
million. Gingrich has spent much of the last three weeks on the
West Coast trying to raise cash.

Gingrich’s campaign spent $5.9 million in January including
$1.8 million for media buys, $858,000 for telemarketing,
$503,000 for online processing fees and $368,000 for ballot
access fees. Gingrich failed to qualify for the March 6 Virginia
ballot and joined a lawsuit challenging the decision to exclude
him.

The Adelsons’ $10 million donation and a $500,000
contribution from Texas billionaire Harold Simmons amounted to
more than 95 percent of what Winning Our Future raised in
January. The PAC raised $1 million from three members of
Adelson’s family in December.

Of the $9.8 million that Winning Our Future spent in
January, $9.2 million went to independent expenditures, a
category that includes outlays for television, radio and mail
advertising.

Ad Buys

The pro-Gingrich PAC spent about $5.4 million in Florida,
where Gingrich lost to Romney on Jan. 31. More than $4.2 million
of that total went to produce and air television and radio ads
to promote Gingrich or attack Romney.

Winning Our Future spent $3.4 million in South Carolina,
where Gingrich’s 12-point win over Romney in the Jan. 21 primary
gave him momentum that he couldn’t sustain.

The rest of the PAC’s January spending, $543,000, went to
operating expenses including payments to consultants. Winning
Our Future paid $206,000 to Rebecca A. Burkett, who serves as
chairwoman of the PAC, according to organizing papers it filed
with the FEC last December. Burkett received $156,000 for
fundraising services and $50,000 for consulting, yesterday’s
filing said.

Gregg A. Phillips, the PAC’s managing director, received
$90,000 last month for strategic planning, the filing said.
Phillips defended the accuracy of a 28-minute video that attacks
Romney’s past service as a private-equity executive at Boston-
based Bain Capital LLC, according to a Jan. 13 letter Phillips
wrote to Romney. The video and the letter are posted on Winning
Our Future’s website.

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Rick Santorum 2012

Eric Gay/AP

Rick Santorum at a campaign stop at the Christ Redeemer Church on Feb. 19, 2012, in Cumming, Georgia.

Rick Santorum at a campaign stop at the Christ Redeemer Church on Feb. 19, 2012, in Cumming, Georgia. Photographer: Eric Gay/AP

 

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Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) — Al Hunt, executive editor for Washington at Bloomberg News and a Bloomberg View columnist, talks about Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s fundraising efforts.
Hunt, speaking on Bloomberg Television’s “InBusiness With Margaret Brennan,” also discusses the outlook for the Republican presidential race. (Al Hunt is a Bloomberg View columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. Source: Bloomberg)

 

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Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) — Sam Graham-Felsen, who was President Barack Obama’s chief blogger on the 2008 campaign, talks about the Democratic incumbent’s campaign fundraising.
He speaks on Bloomberg Television’s “InBusiness with Margaret Brennan.” (Source: Bloomberg)

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Republican presidential candidate
Rick Santorum, who has emerged as the chief rival to Mitt Romney, more than doubled his fundraising after winning the Iowa
caucuses last month.

Romney still raised more money than all of his Republican
challengers and continued to receive the most financial support
from Wall Street.

Meanwhile, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, winner
of the South Carolina primary on Jan. 21, ended the January
filing period with almost as much debt as he had cash in
the bank.

A former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, Santorum raised
$4.5 million in January after collecting $2.2 million in the
entire last year, Federal Election Commission financial
disclosure reports posted yesterday show. He took in 57 percent
of his money last month in donations of $200 or less, according
to FEC records. Santorum, who won the Iowa caucuses Jan. 3 and
the Feb. 7 contests in Missouri, Colorado and Minnesota,
reported having $1.5 million in the bank at the start of
February, FEC records show.

Romney brought in more than $6.5 million last month,
according to his disclosure report. Romney, who has won four
primary contests including Florida, has raised a total of $63.7
million and had a campaign bank account balance of $7.7 million
on Jan. 31.

Wall Street Donations

He raised $36,996 last month from employees of New York-
based JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM), and $33,013 from employees of Bank
of America Corp. (BAC), based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Romney, a
co-founder of the Boston-based private-equity firm Bain Capital
LLC, has raised more money from employees of Wall Street firms
and commercial banks than any other 2012 presidential candidate,
according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-
based research group that tracks political giving.

Donations of $200 or less accounted for 18 percent of his
receipts last month, according to his FEC report.

Unlike previous elections, none of the Republican
candidates have publicly identified those who are raising money
for their campaigns, except the registered lobbyists they are
required by law to report to the FEC.

Romney was the only candidate to disclose any so-called
bundlers last month, saying that three registered lobbyists who
have been raising money for his campaign brought in an
additional $163,645. Wayne Berman, whose clients include
Blackstone Group LP (BX), based in New York, and San Francisco-based
Visa Inc. (V), raised $79,050 of that total.

Gingrich’s Total

Gingrich’s South Carolina victory helped generate $5.6
million in donations last month. Through Jan. 31, he raised a
total of $18.3 million for his campaign.

He reported $1.8 million in the bank at the end of January
– with $1.7 million in debts, including $115,503 for web ads
and $7,500 to his daughter Jackie Cushman’s consulting firm.

Gingrich also relied on small donations; 45 percent of his
money last month was in amount of $200 or less.

U.S. Representative Ron Paul of Texas reported taking in
$4.5 million in January, with 47 percent in amounts of $200 or
less, and entering February with $1.6 million in the bank. Paul
has raised $31 million through Jan. 31, second only to Romney.
The campaign said on its website today that it has also raised
more than $1.9 million so far this month.

The Republicans trail President Barack Obama in fundraising
as the Democratic incumbent takes in money for both the primary
campaign and the general election. Through Jan. 31, Obama raised
$140 million, including $12 million last month, and had $76
million in the bank.

Perry, Huntsman

Texas Governor Rick Perry, who withdrew from the Republican
presidential race Jan. 19 and endorsed Gingrich, reported that
he had $860,168 in the bank at the end of January. He has asked
the FEC for permission to convert his campaign account to a
political action committee. He raised $388,531 last month,
bringing his total to $20.5 million.

Jon Huntsman, the former Utah governor and U.S. ambassador
to China, lent his campaign another $50,000 on Jan. 4, 12 days
before dropping out of the presidential race and endorsing
Romney. He lent his campaign a total of $2.6 million while
raising $3.8 million. He also reported other campaign debts of
$2.6 million.

Former Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer, the only Republican
candidate seeking federal funds to help finance his campaign,
raised $48,807, bringing his total to $393,839, including a
$24,900 personal loan. He had $7,126 in the bank.

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George Romney

Photo of George Romney (1907 – 1995), governor of Michigan, and father of Mitt Romney, mid to late twentieth century. Photograph: PhotoQuest/Getty Images

Photo of George Romney (1907 – 1995), governor of Michigan, and father of Mitt Romney, mid to late twentieth century. Photograph: PhotoQuest/Getty Images

 

{videoPath}/86815152/

Feb. 21 (Bloomberg) — Al Hunt, executive editor for Washington at Bloomberg News and a Bloomberg View columnist, talks about Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum’s fundraising efforts.
Hunt, speaking on Bloomberg Television’s “InBusiness With Margaret Brennan,” also discusses the outlook for the Republican presidential race. (Al Hunt is a Bloomberg View columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. Source: Bloomberg)

Enlarge image

Mitt Romney

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Mitt Romney at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Feb. 10, 2012 in Washington.

Mitt Romney at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Feb. 10, 2012 in Washington. Photographer: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

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Mitt Romney mentioned in an opinion
piece for a Michigan newspaper last week that he learned to love
“chrome and fins and roaring motors” while growing up in
Detroit. His father might have disagreed with such sentiment.

George Romney, a onetime chairman of the now defunct
American Motors Corp., was a pioneer of small, fuel-efficient
cars, most notably the Rambler. He even kept a plaque in his
office from the Cleveland Auto Dealers Association that read:
“To George Romney, critic, lecturer, anthropologist, white
hunter of the American dinosaur.” To the elder Romney, the gas-
guzzling, chrome-laden automobiles of his era were doomed just
like the prehistoric beasts.

“This fellow here is called a triceratops,” he told a
Time magazine interviewer in 1959 as he pulled a miniature
dinosaur from his briefcase. “He had the biggest radiator
ornament in prehistoric history. It kept getting bigger and
bigger until finally he could no longer hold up his head.”

Car detail tastes aside, there are numerous ways George
Romney and Mitt Romney differed, both in their personalities and
politics. The contrasts come into view as the son seeks to wrap
himself in the popularity and success of his father — a three-
term governor in Michigan during the 1960s — before the state’s
Feb. 28 Republican presidential primary.

Volcanic Vs. Calculating

George, who died in 1995, was effervescent and volcanic. He
pushed through the first state income tax in Michigan and
supported the civil rights movement, actions that carried
political risk. Mitt is more calculating and disciplined.

“George was a leader. Mitt is a manager,” said J. Bonner
Ritchie, a retired business professor at Brigham Young
University who was a friend of George’s and has interviewed Mitt
for an unpublished book about his father. “George was willing
to take risks. He was less concerned about what people would
think about him. Nobody ever accused George of flip-flopping or
playing to the audience.”

Ritchie said he and his two co-authors haven’t titled their
book yet and are delaying its publication at the request of Mitt
Romney, 64, who helped fund the project.

Too much focus on George Romney carries risk for Mitt
Romney as he fights for the 2012 Republican presidential
nomination in a year when the party’s opposition voices to
government spending, abortion rights, and immigration are the
loudest.

Advocated Civil Rights

His father was part of the Republican Party’s moderate wing
and he used his platform to advocate government assistance to
the poor in housing and other areas. In 1964, he refused to
support the party’s presidential nominee, Barry Goldwater, in
part because of Goldwater’s opposition to national civil rights
laws, which ended segregation and provided minority voting
rights.

Complicated relationships between fathers and sons in
political families aren’t unusual. Former President George W. Bush went out of his way to keep distance between his presidency
and that of his father, George H.W. Bush.

The younger Bush rarely talked about his father on the
campaign trail, while Romney, the youngest of four children,
routinely brings up his dad as he recounts how the family took
cross-country drives to see national parks.

When he lost three Republican state caucuses on Feb. 7 to
former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Romney talked
about his father as he sought to highlight the family’s working-
class credentials. He said his dad once apprenticed as a
carpenter and could “take a handful of nails, stick them in his
mouth and then, you know, spit them out, pointy end forward.”

Side-by-Side Campaigning

The public support and affection between father and son
went both ways. George Romney was a confidant to his son and
campaigned at his side in Massachusetts in 1994 when he
unsuccessfully challenged Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy, who
died in August 2009.

The two Romneys lived in different eras defined by their
own political dynamics, so some comparisons aren’t easy fits.
Still, their governing styles and backgrounds could hardly be
more distinct.

George relied on gut instinct, while Mitt depends on
homework and preparation. George never finished college, while
Mitt attended an elite high school, Brigham Young University and
Harvard University’s law and business schools.

Well-Mannered Son

George once inadvertently ripped the lapel off the coat of
a state lawmaker during an argument, while as Massachusetts
governor Mitt was known for his well-mannered behavior.

“George Romney was very outspoken, extroverted, candid and
dynamic in a way that Mitt has just never been able to be,”
said Bill Ballenger, editor of the Inside Michigan Politics
newsletter. “He was a very straight-forward, straight-shooting
guy and Mitt has always had this trouble of people thinking that
there is something artificial about him.”

George was also a natural salesman who showed determination
in whatever he undertook, Ritchie said, including the courtship
of his wife, Lenore, then an aspiring actress.

His pursuit of Lenore began in high school, and ended
successfully years later after he followed her first to
Washington, D.C. and then to Hollywood.

“He was persistent in a way that very few people are,” he
said.

Washington Lobbyist

The senior Romney served as a lobbyist in Washington for
the aluminum industry, before entering the automotive industry.
He returned to Washington after his governorships as secretary
of housing and urban development in the Nixon administration. He
resigned that position in 1972, expressing frustration with the
“inherent limitations” in the political processes that make
reforms “too dependent upon a crisis.”

Given his views about taxes and an activist government,
George likely wouldn’t mesh well in the current Republican
Party. Even in his own era, he got himself into political
trouble and was known for occasional gaffes, like his son.

In one of those misstatements, George damaged his own
presidential bid when he told an interviewer in 1967 that he’d
suffered a “brainwashing” in 1965 from military commanders and
diplomats during his travels in Vietnam.

After initially backing American involvement in the war,
his newfound criticism was in conflict with his party’s
collective view as it prepared to challenge incumbent President
Lyndon Johnson. It also appeared inconsistent and included a
word that for some Americans carried negative connotations about
U.S. soldiers. After the remark, George saw his standing in
polls drop and his presidential bid was fatally damaged.

Puzzled Looks

How much George Romney’s name will help his son in next
week’s primary remains unknown. It could be overstated,
considering the family’s presence on the state’s political stage
ended years ago. Mitt Romney’s mother ran unsuccessfully for
U.S. Senate in 1970 and his brother, Scott, lost his bid to
become the Republican nominee for Michigan (BEESMI) attorney general in
1998. Last week, a few blocks from the home where Mitt Romney
spent the majority of his childhood, raising the name of his
father often drew puzzled looks from younger residents.

As different as father and son are politically, there are
similarities, including their frugality. Mitt has been seen
doing his own laundry in hotels on the campaign trail. George
was known for eating at McDonald’s and grabbing roses from the
bushes of his neighbors during his morning jogs to give to his
wife, said Ritchie, the retired business professor.

They also shared a commitment to physical fitness. Mitt
Romney routinely runs or uses a treadmill while on the campaign
trail, while his father played a jogging version of solitary
golf at first daylight using luminous balls at a country club
across the street from their home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

Both father and son also shared a sincere desire to help
others, Ritchie said.

“There is no question of the centrality of their
commitment to the community, their faith and family,” he said.

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