Mitt Romney leaves Utah today for Massachusetts — but that's about all he'll reveal about his post-Olympic plans.
The Salt Lake Organizing Committee president is expected to announce as soon as Monday whether he'll challenge acting Massachusetts Gov. Jane Swift in this fall's Republican primary.
He's apparently made up his mind, most likely to jump into the race. The Massachusetts state convention is April 6 and supporters have already pledged enough votes there to qualify him for the ballot.
A Suffolk University poll released last week has Romney beating Swift 74 percent to 18 percent. And the Boston Herald reported Friday that Massachusetts Democrats are hoping to help defeat Romney in the primary, so their candidate will face the weaker Swift.
Romney would only say Saturday that he isn't ready to announce his decision. Last week, at a meeting with Deseret News editors and reporters, Romney had said he still wasn't sure what he was going to do.
"I haven't decided exactly, even as to the day I will announce my decision," he said. "I have told folks I'm not going to say anything about politics during the Paralympics."
The 2002 Paralympic Winter Games ended Saturday night with closing ceremonies at the Olympic Medals Plaza.
By tonight, Romney and his wife, Ann, intend to be back at their home in Belmont, a suburb of Boston. On Monday, Belmont is hosting a welcome-home party on the town square for Romney.
Although there has been speculation Romney might seek office in Utah, it always made more sense politically for him to go back to Massachusetts, where he ran a good campaign against Democrat icon Ted Kennedy in 1994.
That's because while Romney considers himself a conservative Republican by Massachusetts standards, those standards are very different than Utah conservatives.
Many Massachusetts Republicans are pro-choice. In his 1994 race, Romney maintains, he was pro-life, and made that clear on several occasions.
But a number of media accounts of the race have him painted differently. In an Oct. 29, 1994, story in the Washington Post on two Romney-Kennedy debates, political writer David Broder said: "Eager to show that he is a moderate independent and no ideologue, Romney stressed his support for universal health insurance and abortion rights, criticized the Republican 'Contract With America' promoted by the party's congressional leaders and, at Faneuil Hall, was more outspoken than Kennedy in arguing that the Boy Scouts should not exclude homosexual youths."
Were Romney to stay in Utah and run for some office, no doubt such comments would haunt him with the arch-conservatives who historically people the state Republican convention.
Times have changed since Orrin Hatch won his Senate seat in 1976, only a few years after he moved to Utah. Hatch had been here before, to attend Brigham Young University. Same with Romney, who took over SLOC three years ago.
But all recent winners of major offices in Utah were born and reared here, with ties to the Republican establishment. And any open statewide seat — like governor and U.S. Senate — would see a wealth of good, and probably rich, GOP candidates, all stacking up to the political right of Romney.
It's not a given that Romney could win the Massachusetts governor's race, although at this point he looks likely to win the Republican nomination. Only about 17 percent of Massachusetts' voters are registered Republicans, while more than 40 percent are Democrats.
A GOP victory there would be akin to a Democrat winning Utah's governorship — something that hasn't happened since 1980. But the past two governors in Massachusetts have been Republicans — albeit moderates or even liberals by Utah standards.
In any case, unlike Utah, anyone elected Massachusetts' governor is an immediate player on America's national stage. Former Gov. Michael Dukakis won the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988, and any governor sitting in the Boston state house commands a major media market.
Romney has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate some day. His father, the late George Romney, ran unsuccessfully for president in 1968 after serving three terms as Michigan's governor.
At last Thursday's meeting at the Deseret News, though, Romney wasn't ready to talk about his political future. Instead, he wanted to offer his thanks to the community for helping to make the 2002 Winter Games a success.
"The whole community came together to create what I think are being viewed as the best, or among the very best, ever," Romney said.
"The Games were just magical. And the Games were far more than I had ever dreamed. You hear about this sort of Olympic feeling that descends on a city, and you hope that will happen."
When Romney arrived here in February 1999 to take over the Games, he wasn't sure it would. The Olympic world was rocked by accusations that more than $1 million in bribes were paid to win the bid.
"I wondered whether the long history, the sort of exhilaration followed by the rude awakening and the agonizing reappraisals, whether that would leave us so skeptical as a community that the Olympic spirit would not descend on the community.
"But it did in a massive way and a way I would never forget," he said, crediting "the contribution of the entire community, the media, the volunteers, the businesses, the charities, the churches."
The Games even won over skeptics, Romney said.
For example, he was in his doctor's office recently for a physical.
"My doctor and another doctor poked their heads in and said, 'We were both against the Olympics . . . boy, were we wrong.' "
E-mail: lisa@desnews.com; bbjr@desnews.com