BEDFORD, Mass. — Salt Lake City Olympic chief Mitt Romney returned to Massachusetts on Sunday and closed the door to any possibility of running for public office in Utah, where he has lived the past three years.
Arriving at Hanscom Air Field in a private jet as speculation continued over a possible gubernatorial run in Massachusetts, Romney took on criticism that he had lost ties to the state.
"It's great to be home," said Romney, who owns a house in the Boston suburb of Belmont. "Massachusetts is our home. This is where we vote, keep our home, it's where our family lives and we are happy to be back."
Romney, whose father, George Romney, was governor of Michigan, had previously said he would consider running for office in Utah. A Mormon who graduated from Brigham Young University and sent his children there, Romney has been mentioned as a possible successor to Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt or to one of the state's senators.
"I generally have tried to not close doors definitively until that was necessary," he said Sunday. "But in this particular case there is no prospect of my running for office in Utah."
Romney and his wife, who wore leather jackets with the Olympic logo, were met by their sons, Josh and Tagg. The Romneys have five sons, three of whom are married and live in Massachusetts. They also have four grandchildren in Massachusetts.
Acting Gov. Jane Swift, who would face Romney in a Republican primary, has raised questions about whether Romney, who has filed tax returns in Utah and maintained a residence there, would be eligible to run in the Bay State. Massachusetts state law requires gubernatorial candidates to have lived in the state for seven years.
Romney, 54, will be honored in Belmont on Monday. On Tuesday, he is planning an event at a Boston hotel to thank supporters for their efforts to draft him. Romney's potential candidacy was a frequent topic at the traditional St. Patrick's Day breakfast in South Boston on Sunday. Swift quipped that Romney, whose reputation has soared after successfully running the Olympics, was unable to attend because of the dry weather that has hit Massachusetts.
"His handlers were afraid there wouldn't be enough water for him to walk on," Swift said.
Senate President Thomas Birmingham, a Democratic candidate for governor, joked that Romney had asked House Speaker Thomas Finneran to come up with a redistricting plan that would allow him to live in Utah but run for governor in Massachusetts.
Birmingham had a T-shirt for Swift that said, "Mitt Happens."
Romney said he was close to making a final decision. "I'm 99 percent there," he said, adding that he'll announce his plans this week.
But he downplayed the importance of a new poll showing him leading fellow Republican Swift, 75 percent to 12 percent, if he entered the race. The Boston Herald poll of 401 likely Republican voters was conducted Friday and Saturday and had a margin of error of 5 percentage points.
"I once had a short experience as a candidate and I found out that what really counts is not the poll but what happens on Nov. 6," Romney said.
Romney, who unsuccessfully challenged Democratic U.S. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy in 1994, was in a statistical dead heat in the polls in that race about six weeks before the election, but lost by 17 percentage points.