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The 2007 Lincoln Day Dinner Was A Total Success With Mitt Romney The Presidential Candidate As The Main Guest Speaker.

Power House Business Man Al Austin Introduces Mitt Romney

Willard Mitt Romney, usuall known as Mitt (born March 12, 1947) was the 70th Governor of Massachusetts, he served on term and did not seek re-rlection in 2006. His term ended January 4th, 2007.

Romney is currently a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2008. He formally annouced his candidacy on February 13, 2007. Romney is a practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Romney is a former CEO of Bain & Company, a management consulting firm, and the co-founder of Bain Capital, a private equity investment firm. Romney is credited with rescuing the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah from potential tcy as the SLOC's CEO and organizer in 1994.

Romney was born in Detroit, Michigan. He is a great great grandson of Latter-day Saint leader and apostdle Parley P. Pratt and the son of former Michigan Governor, Housingand Urban Development Secretary, American Motors chairman, and presidential candidate George W Romney and unsuccessful 1970 U.S. Senate candidate Lenore Romney. Romney has three siblings: Lynn, Jane, and G. Scott. He was named after hote magnate J Willard Marriot, his father's best friend, and Milton Romney, a relative who played football for the Chicago Bears.

Romney married his high school sweetheart, Ann Davies, in 1968. They have five sons (Tagg, Matt, Josh, Ben and Craig) and ten grandchildren. Ann Romney was diagnosed with tiple sclerosis in 1998.

Early Life and Education

Romney graduated from the Cranbrook School in Bloomfield Hills (now Cranbrook Kingswood School). He met his future wife, Ann davies, while she attended Kingswood School.

Mitt attended Standford University for two quarters but could not pass up the opportunity to become a missionary. He went onto serve for 30 months as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in France. Upon returning from France he transferred to Brigham Young University, where he was valedictorian, earning his B.A. summa cum laude in 1971. In 1975, Romney graduated from a joint JD/MBA program coordinated between Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School, where he was named a Baker Scholar. He graduated cum laude from the law school and in the top 5 percent of his business school class.

Business Career

After graduating from Harvard, Romney went to work for the Boston Consulting Group, where he had interned during the summer of 1974. From 1978 to 1984, Romney left the company to co-found Bain Capital, which quickly became a highly successful private equity investment firm.

In 1990 Romney was asked to return to Bain & Company, which was facing financial collapse. As CEO, Romney managed an effort to restructure the firm's employee stock-ownership plan, real-estate deals and bank loans, while increasing fiscal transparency. Within a year, he had led Bain & Company through a highly successful turnaround and returned the firm to profitability without layoffs or partner defections.

Following his year at Bain * Company, Romney returned to Bain Capital. During the 14 years he headed the copany, Bain Capital's average annual inte of return on realized investments was 112 percent. During Romney's tenure, the firm founded, acquired or invested in hundreds of companies including Staples, Bright Horizons family Solutions, Brookstone, Domino's, Sealy Corporation and The Sports Authority. Romney left Bain Capital in 1998 to head the 2002 Salt Olympic Games Organizing Committee.

CEO of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee

As a result of mismanagement and allegations of bribery president SLOC CEO Frank Joklik and vice president Dave Johnson, the City Olympic Games was $379 million short of its revenue benchmark. Plans were being made to scale the games in order to compensate for the fiscal crisis.

In an effort to reverse the monetary crises Romney was brought on board as the new CEO the Salt Lake city Olympic Games. President and CEO Frank Joklik and SLOC vice president Dave Johnson resigned and Romney was hired on February 11, 1999. He quicly restructured the organization's leadership and policies, reduced budgets and boosted fundraising. He also worked to ensure the safety of the Games following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 by coordinating an additional $300 million security budget. Despite the initial fiscal shortfall, the Gaves ended up clearing a profit of $100 million. Following the conclusion of the Gaves, president George W Bush praised Romney's management.

Romney contributed $1 million to the Olympics, and donated the $800 salary he earned as president and CEO to charity. He wrote a book his experience called turnaround: Crisis, Leadership and the Olympic Games.)

Massachusetts Political Campaigns

Campaign for United States Senate, 1994 election

In 1994, Romney won the Massachusetts Republican Party's mnomination for U.S. senate after defeating businessman John Lakian in the primary. Early polls showed Romeny only slightly behind Senator Ted Kennedy. One Boston Herald/WCVB-TV poll taken after the september 20,1994 primary showed Romney ahead 44 percent to 42 percent, within the poll's sampling margin of error.

Kennedy won with the smallest margin lead (17 percentage point lead) in his nine election contest for the senate. Kennedy managed to get 58 % of the vote spending over 10 million dollars while Romney garnished 41 % of the vote spending over 7 million, according to figures in the Almanac of American Politics 1996, which relies on official campaign finace reports.

Campaign for Governor, 2002 election

In 2002, Republican Lieutenant Governor Jane Swift was expected to campaign for the governor's office. Swift had served as acting govenor after Republican Governor Paul Cellucci resigned upon being appointed U.S. Ambassador to Canada. Swift was viewed as an unpopular executive, and her administration was plagued by political missteps and personal scandals. Many Repblicans viewed her as a liability and considered her unable to win a general election against a Democrat. Prominent GOP activists campaigned to persuade Romney to run for governor. One poll taken at this time showed that Republicans favored Romney over Swift by ore than 50 percentage points. With growing speculation that Romney would challenge Swift in a bruising primary battle, Swift decided not to seek her party's nomination.

Massachusetts Democratic Party officals claimed that Romney was ineligible to run for governor, citing residency issues The Massachusetts Constitution requires seven consecutive years of residency prior to a run for office. Romney claimed residency in Utah from 1999 to 2002, during his time as president of the Salt Lake City Olympic Committee. In 1999 to 2002, during his time as president of the Salt Lake City olympic Committee. In 1999 he listed himself as a part-time Massachusetts resident. The Massachusetts Democratic Party filed a complaint with the Massachusetts State Ballot Law Commission, which eventually ruled that Romney was eligible to run for office. The ruling was not challenged in court. During the general election Romeny ran on a reform platform; a major issue in the election was the state b udget crisis. Supporters of Romney hailed his business record, especially his success with the 2002 Olympics. as that of one who would be able to bring in a new era of efficiency into Massachusetts politics. Romney contributed 6.3 million to his own campaig during the election, at the time a state record. Romney was elected Governor in November 2002 with 50 percent of the vote over Democratic candidate Shannon O'Brien, who received 45%.

Governor of Massachusetts, 2003-2007

Romney served one term as governor. He was sworn in as the 70th governor of Massachusetts on January 2, 2003, along with Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey. On December 14, Romney announced that he would not seek re-election for a second term as governor, fueling speculation about a run for the White House in 2008. Healey became the Republican nominee for the 2006 Massachusetts gubnatorial race and subsequently lost to Democrat Deval Patrick. Romney's term ended January 4, 2007. Romney filed papers to establish a formal exploratory presidential campaign committee the next to last day in office as governor.

Campaign for United States President, 2008 election

Since 2004, Romney has been discussed as a potential 2008 presidential candidate. On January 3, his next to last day in office as governor of Massachusetts, Romeny filed to form a presidential exploratory committee with the Federal Election Commission. On February 13, 2007 Romney formally annouced his candidacy for the Repbulican Nomination for President in 2008. On March 3, 2007 Mitt Romney formally annnounced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for president in 2008. On March 2007 Mitt Romney won the (CPAC) Conservative Political Action Conference Straw Poll. He received 21% of the vote. Rudy Giuliani received 17%, and Senator John McCain received 12%. 1,705 attendees voted.

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Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer

Republican Party of Florida Chairman Jim Greer called on a statewide summit of Florida Republican clubs today, calling for enhanced communication between clubs and a focus on common goals and objectives.

"Today's summit opens a new dialogue between Florida's diverse Republican-affiliated clubs by bringing us together to discuss our collective future," remarked Chairman Greer. "We will renew our focus on growing and sustaining individual clubs while putting a new emphasis on victory in the 2008 Presidential Election."

There are currently over 170 clubs affiliated with the Republican Party of Florida. Over 100 clubs were represented at the summit, including African American, Jewish, and Hispanic American Republican clubs. Additionally, numerous county chairs were in attendance. Attorney General Bill McCollum addressed summit attendees at the summit's luncheon, highlighting the importance of grassroots activists in Florida's political process.

"I am glad Florida's Republican clubs could come together for a day of discussion and idea-sharing, which will better prepare us for 2008," noted Johnny Hunter, Chairman of the Florida Federation of Black Republicans, which was represented at the summit by six individual groups. "It's exciting to see that a significant percentage of clubs at the summit represent nontraditional Republican demographics, and we will continue to reach out to these groups."

"As the Republican Party of Florida continues to grow and evolve, it is critical that we define our goals and create innovative strategies to meet them," concluded Chairman Greer. "Florida's Republican clubs will stand as the cornerstone of our success in the future, and we are committed to providing them with the resources they need to excel."

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