Massachusetts Governor Won’t Seek Reelection

BOSTON —  Gov. Mitt Romney announced Wednesday that he would not seek reelection in 2006, ending months of speculation and clearing the way for a possible run for the Republican nomination for president in 2008.

Noting that he had promised to make his intentions known before the official start of winter next week, Romney called a 6 p.m. news conference at the statehouse to declare: “I will not be a candidate for reelection.”

With his wife, Ann, by his side, Romney refused to say whether he would seek his party’s nomination for president.

“With regards to what happens down the road, we’ll let the future take care of itself,” said Romney, who made a fortune as a venture capitalist before turning to politics.

Romney, 58, recently was elected to lead the Republican Governors Assn. He has traveled extensively out of state in recent months, including trips to Iowa and New Hampshire -- key presidential primary states.

Increasingly, the governor has taken public positions on national issues, such as his announcement this week that he supported Arctic oil drilling.

Romney also has steadily distanced himself from his state’s liberal reputation.

Last year, he exhausted every legal avenue in an unsuccessful attempt to keep Massachusetts from becoming the first state to legalize same-sex marriage.

He continues to support a state constitutional amendment that would limit marriage to a union between a man and a woman.

Romney also has tried to reintroduce the death penalty in Massachusetts, one of 11 states that bar capital punishment.

His decision to limit himself to a single term as governor strengthens his possible appeal within his party as “a conservative from a blue state,” said Julian Zelizer, a Boston University history professor who studies national politics. “He can turn it to his advantage. He can be an ally from enemy territory.”

Linda Fowler, a professor of government at Dartmouth College, first scoffed at the prospect of any Massachusetts politician winning national office, then added: “Well, stranger things have happened.”

President Kennedy, elected in 1960, was the last candidate from Massachusetts to win a White House bid.

As for a possible Romney bid for the presidency, Fowler said: “Obviously, it is a long shot. It is probably only reasonable to think about it at all because the field is so wide open.”

Romney handily won office in 2002. In 1994, he ran for the Senate from Massachusetts but lost to Democratic incumbent Edward M. Kennedy.

Asked repeatedly at Wednesday’s news conference about his White House ambitions, Romney pointed out that another probable Republican presidential candidate, Arizona Sen. John McCain, “says he thinks of being president every day in the shower.”

Romney said the words he hums when he’s daydreaming come from “Star Wars,” namely: “It is a galaxy far, far away.”

Turning serious, he said: “I am not going to close any options, other than running for reelection. I don’t think it would be fair to change my mind on that one.”

Romney promised to finish his term. Two of his recent Republican predecessors, Govs. William Weld and Paul Cellucci, left office before their terms expired.

The move by the son of former Michigan Gov. George Romney heartened state Democrats, who have not occupied the corner office on Beacon Hill since Michael Dukakis stepped down in 1992.

“He doesn’t want this job? I do,” state Atty. Gen. Tom Reilly said Wednesday. “I’m going for it, folks. I’m going for it.”

Deval Patrick, a top Justice Department official during the Clinton administration, also is running for governor as a Democrat.

Romney’s lieutenant governor, Kerry Healey, is widely expected to run as his Republican replacement. Romney said Wednesday that he would endorse her candidacy.

Charlie Manning, a longtime Republican strategist in Massachusetts, said that Romney’s decision not to seek a second term came as no surprise.

“I think people thought he would serve his whole term and get as much done as he could and then move on to other things, as he has done so many times in his life,” Manning said. “Mitt is kind of Mr. Fix-It.”

The governor used his speech Wednesday to outline his accomplishments as governor, saying he had met almost all the goals he outlined when he took office.

Phil Johnston, chairman of the Democratic Party in Massachusetts, disagreed.

“He has done the opposite. You name it, he hasn’t done it. He said he would travel around the country persuading CEOs to move their businesses here, and he has done the opposite. He has traveled around the country bashing Massachusetts.”

Johnston dismissed Romney’s possible presidential ambitions as an example of “what I call the Mitt principle: You fail in one job and then attempt to get elected to a higher office. He joins a long line of Republican governors who have tried to get out of town as fast as possible.”