Romney one GOP candidate in Nevada

Has any one noticed that Nevada has been visited at least once by every Democratic wannabe presidential candidate but that Republican hopefuls have sort of been AWOL from the Silver State?

There are a couple of reasons for this. First, Nevada Democrats planned well ahead of time to move their presidential preference contest from the regular August 2008 primary election to a caucus to be held Jan. 19, 2008, a seven-month advance. Since Nevada is a "swing" state with a diverse population, it was thought that most candidates would rearrange their schedules and show up here instead of ignoring Nevada and spending all their time and money in populous swing states with lots of electoral votes such as Florida, Ohio or Pennsylvania. It worked. We have had hot and cold running Democrat presidential candidates ever since.

Republicans debated moving their presidential preference contest to Jan. 19 as well but didn't actually get together and vote to move it until last May. By then most GOP presidential aspirants had long since filled their calendars with commitments in other states.

Rudy Guliani came to a fundraiser hosted by Crystal Bay Club owners Roger and Elise Norman last spring but that was about it. Until this month, that is. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney was in Reno earlier this month to meet with the Olympic Organizing Committee, a news item that got a lot of attention not only because of Romney's stature as a presidential candidate but because a lot of our friends and neighbors would love to have the Winter Olympics come to Reno-Tahoe again.

Romney's visit to Lake Tahoe that evening did not get a lot of media attention but it attracted big names. Crystal Bay residents Nora and Bruce James joined former Gov. Kenny Guinn and his wife Dema to co-host a fundraiser for Romney at the James' home overlooking the Lake.

Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons and First Lady Dawn Gibbons were also there in support and Gov. Romney was driven to the event by Nevada Lt. Gov. Brian Krolicki. Romney was introduced to the crowd by former First Lady Dema Guinn who drew on personal experiences she and her husband had shared with the Romneys to warmly endorse his candidacy. Then it was Gov. Romney's turn.

He told the folks present that he graduated from Brigham Young University cum laude, earned his MBA at Harvard Business School and his JD degree from Harvard Law School, also cum laude. He co-founded Bain Capital and worked 25 years as a business strategist turning troubled companies into profitable enterprises. The 2002 Salt Lake Olympics Organizing Committee called on Romney when that organization found itself in serious trouble following bribery scandals and a $370 million deficit. As CEO he turned it into a major success.

Romney was elected governor of liberal Massachusetts in 2002. He worked with a heavily Democratic legislature to erase a $3 billion dollar budget deficit and balance the state budget every year after that. Perhaps his most intriguing accomplishment was convincing the Massachusetts Legislature to provide universal health care by requiring all citizens to have health insurance, much as Nevada and other states mandate automobile insurance. Medicaid funds were redirected so those who could not afford private health insurance had premiums subsidized . . . an interesting free enterprise solution to a tough problem.

Romney sized up the Democratic field of candidates by noting that not one of them had ever even run a corner store much less a huge organization like the U.S. government.

Maybe it's time we had a CEO in the White House.

Jim Clark is president of Republican Advocates, a vice chair of the Washoe County GOP and a member of the Nevada GOP Central Committee.