N.H. Votes as Rivals Hit Romney Over Firing Comment

By Julie Hir

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Supporters of Republican presidential hopefuls hold placards outside a polling station at Webster School in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Jan. 10, 2012. Photographer: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP/Getty Images

 

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Jan. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Al Hunt, executive editor for Washington at Bloomberg News and a Bloomberg View columnist, talks about the New Hampshire primary. Hunt speaks on Bloomberg Television's "InBusiness With Margaret Brennan." (Hunt is a Bloomberg View columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. Source: Bloomberg)

 

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Jan. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Ralph Schlosstein, president and chief executive officer at Evercore Partners Inc., talks about Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's background in the private-equity industry. Schlosstein, speaking with Betty Liu on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop," also discusses the resignation of White House Chief of Staff William Daley. (Source: Bloomberg)

 

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Jan. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Frank Keating, president and chief executive officer of the American Bankers Association and a former governor of Oklahoma, discusses Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's tenure as chief executive officer of Bain Capital LLC and the outlook for the Republican presidential race. Keating speaks with Erik Schatzker on Bloomberg Television's "InsideTrack." (Source: Bloomberg)

 

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Jan. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich talks about Mitt Romney's role at Bain Capital LLC and the outlook for the primaries. Gingrich, a former House speaker, talks with Peter Cook on Bloomberg Television's "InsideTrack." (Source: Bloomberg)

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Republican presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney smiles while campaigning at a Boys and Girls Club, on Jan. 5, 2012, in Salem, New Hampshire. Photographer: Matt Rourke/AP

Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney’s rivals sought to tarnish his image and cut into his lead as voters went to the polls for today’s New Hampshire primary, with the candidates reaching for the chance to continue their campaigns as the race moves south.


Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Romney has “some very big questions to answer” about his time at Bain Capital LLC, a Boston-based private equity firm, and whether he chose profit over jobs.
“I don’t have much respect if you rig the game so you end up walking off with all the money,” Gingrich, 68, said this morning in an interview on Bloomberg Television.
Romney, the former Massachusetts governor and second-time presidential candidate who won the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses by eight votes, was competing against expectations that he would win New Hampshire’s contest by a wide margin. Anything less may frustrate his efforts to show that he holds enough appeal in his own party to mount a strong challenge to President Barack Obama.
“We’ve come a long way in New Hampshire, but we can’t take anything for granted,” Romney said in an e-mail to supporters, appealing to them to “do everything in your power to make it out to your local polling place today.”

Firing People

Romney made his final case to voters as his rivals seized on an off-the-cuff remark yesterday that he likes “being able to fire people who provide services to me.”
While Romney, 64, was referring to health-insurance companies -- not his own employees -- when he made the comments, his opponents have used the comment to portray him as a corporate raider because of his years in the private equity business, and to undercut his argument that he’s the candidate best able to create jobs.
U.S. employers added 1.64 million workers in 2011, the most since 2006, the Labor Department said last week. Even with the gains, little headway has been made in recovering the 8.75 million jobs lost as a result of the recession that ended in June 2009.
Former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr., 51, who has blanketed New Hampshire over the past several months and staked his campaign on a solid showing here today, pushed for a late burst of support based partly on a backlash from Romney’s gaffe.

‘Closing Message’

“Our closing message to New Hampshire voters is about restoring trust and putting country first; Mitt Romney’s closing message is about petty politics and firing people,” said Huntsman spokesman Tim Miller in a statement that accompanied a new web video his campaign released featuring the candidate expounding on New Hampshire’s “Live Free or Die” motto.
Texas Governor Rick Perry, who skipped campaigning in New Hampshire in recent days to focus on South Carolina’s Jan. 21 primary, told a town-hall meeting today at a retirement community in Fort Mill that Bain’s dealings had hurt workers in the southern state.
He mentioned stopping yesterday at a photo album company in Gaffney, South Carolina, that he said lost 150 jobs “so a Wall Street firm could make $20 million.” He said a steel plant in Georgetown had made Bain $65 million in management fees as they “shut down rather than trying to restructure and to keep the jobs in South Carolina.”

‘Quick Buck’

“They were more interested in making the quick buck,” Perry said. “And that’s the Wall Street mentality. Ethics kind of get thrown out the door. And it’s all too often just about how can we make as much money as we can make in a hurry. And then walk away from the rubble that’s left.”
Perry said that while he is a capitalist, there’s a difference between that and “making money at all costs.”
Romney, stopping today at a New Hampshire polling place at Manchester’s Webster School, couldn’t escape the storm.
As he held a baby thrust into his arms by a supporter, a protester shouted: “Are you going to fire that baby?”
“I was talking about, as you know, insurance companies,” Romney told reporters. “We all like to get rid of our insurance companies. We don’t want Obama to tell us we can’t.”
Romney said he was excited for the voting to get under way and hoped to do better than his narrow victory in the Iowa caucuses last week.

Choosing Late

New Hampshire voters suggested they are living up to their reputation for choosing a candidate late and changing their minds up to the final moments.
Romney was favored by 37 percent of likely New Hampshire primary voters surveyed in a tracking poll conducted Jan. 8-9 by the Suffolk University Political Research Center in Boston and sponsored by 7NEWS. U.S. Representative Ron Paul was second with 18 percent, followed by Huntsman at 16 percent, former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania with 11 percent and Gingrich at 9 percent. Perry drew 1 percent.
The survey showed Romney’s support eroding since last week, when he drew 43 percent in Suffolk’s poll released Jan. 2, and Huntsman on the rise, having built on the 9 percent support he had in the same survey.
John Burns, 23, a construction traffic controller from Manchester decided yesterday to vote for Santorum, 53, after attending a rally the candidate held here.
“I liked what I saw,” Burns said after casting his vote. “He is a supporter of Israel and of the Bible, and I believe he’s the one who can turn this economy around.”

Vote for Paul

Patrick Boissonneau, 30, a student who had Ron Paul’s name tatooed on his neck, said he “came down to vote for him because I believe more in the personal liberty aspect of things.”
Boissonneau said he also likes Huntsman and that both his economic plan and Romney’s would be better than Obama’s. “But I think overall, for the direction of the country, I think Ron Paul’s is better.”
The Republican candidates were already looking toward the South Carolina primary, in which socially conservative voters hold considerable sway and Romney’s rivals hope to halt his momentum.
Paul, 76, e-mailed supporters telling them he was “excited about our chances to follow up on our incredible top-tier finish in Iowa with a strong showing” in New Hampshire today, and announcing he would hold a “money bomb” Jan. 14 to help him make a “strong final push in South Carolina.”