Romney looks to quickly merge staff, GOP panel
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Mitt Romney’s top aides plan to move quickly after the primaries Tuesday to integrate the campaign’s growing staff with the Republican National Committee, in an effort to avoid logistical stumbles that have hampered past nominees, campaign aides and committee officials said Friday.
Romney, the presumptive presidential nominee, arrived in Scottsdale at a meeting of Republican state party chairmen from around the country with a message of unity, aiming to win over those who had championed his rivals in the past several months of intraparty combat.
“I want to say how much I appreciate your chairman’s work and all of your work to get the RNC back on track and get us ready to take back the White House, the Senate and to keep the House,” Romney said after an extended standing ovation from the members at a luncheon.
Standing in front of a large committee logo, Romney declared it was “good to see so many old friends” and pledged to restore American principles and greatness “together, with a great win in November.”
The charm offensive appears to be working. Local party officials and Republican committee members said they consider Romney to be their nominee and are eager to begin the campaign to take back the White House from President Barack Obama in November.
“There’s clearly an assumption by everyone here that Romney is the nominee of the party,” said Saul Anuzis, the former chairman of the Michigan Republican Party. “It’s an opportunity to kick off the campaign, start talking about how we are going to change the country.”
Romney has been careful not to push the committee into a formal support role while two of his rivals, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich of Georgia and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, continue campaigning for the nomination. But aides to Romney expect that dynamic to change after Tuesday, when he is expected to win all five of the primaries, including those in New York and Pennsylvania.
That will not give Romney a mathematical lock on the nomination, but his advisers believe that the victories will put an “exclamation point” on Romney’s presumed status as the nominee and provide the opening to move forward with a closer integration with the national party.
Aides to Romney described the integration as more of a merger than a hostile takeover, noting that the party organization is already filled with some Romney loyalists.
The campaign’s strategists said they are pleased with the work of Reince Priebus, the Republican national chairman, during the past year to fix lackluster fundraising and smooth out a sometimes chaotic organization.
Still, the campaign is likely to name several of Romney’s close associates as top advisers to work closely with the committee as the campaign moves forward, according to sources familiar with the plans that are likely to be put in place this week.
Brian Jones, a veteran Republican operative close to Romney’s campaign manager, Matt Rhoades, is likely to serve as the official liaison between the two camps. And Kevin Madden, who served as Romney’s spokesman in his 2008 presidential campaign, may work with communications operations, a top adviser said. Jones and Madden declined to comment.
Mike Duhaime, a veteran Republican strategist and former political director at the Republican National Committee who later managed Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign, said the integration of the two camps should be smooth.
“You’ve got important people in important positions at the RNC and the campaign who have been on presiden- tial campaigns and been at the committee before,” Duhaime said. “They have longstanding good relationships and understand the expectations on both sides.”
In an interview, Priebus said it was too early to discuss specific details about integrating with Romney’s campaign. But, he said, he wanted a “seamless and complete merger” with Romney’s Boston-based operation and expressed optimism that that would happen soon.
“We need to start getting ourselves into a place where we are not just lightly communicating with Mitt Romney’s campaign,” Priebus said. “We need to start more formalizing our relationship with Gov. Romney.”
Priebus said Tuesday’s primaries would play “a big part” in deciding how quickly to put those plans into action. “Unlike maybe previous mergers in the past, I think we’re going to have a pretty successful merger,” he said.
The campaign plans to lean heavily on the national committee for get-out-the-vote operations that have been the hallmark of the national organization. The committee’s rapid response team also is being beefed up to react quickly to Obama’s expected attacks.
Southern Tradition Shutters