Tuesday, March 06, 2012YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Delphi’s salaried retirees are ready to look for a presidential candidate who will deal with their plight -- and that someone could be the Republican seeking to replace Obama who came here yesterday, a representative of the retirees said. But a high school senior seeking help to pay for college was told to “suck it up,” as he put it, and is considering to vote for the Democrats this fall instead.
Mitt Romney, who held a town hall meeting at the Brilex Taylor-Winfield Technologies Inc. plant on the eve of today’s statewide primary, seemed “to show a willingness to work toward transparency and find out what happened here,” said Mary Ann Hudzik of the Delphi Salaried Retiree Association. Hudzik addressed the salaried retirees’ plight –- their pensions were treated differently than those of hourly employees as part of General Motors’ Corp.’s restructuring -- to Romney during a question-and-answer period at the event and said she was satisfied with his promise to look into the issue.
“Our retirees are looking for someone to resolve this,” she remarked. “If President Obama is not willing to resolve this, our retirees are going to look for someone who will.”
Hudzik emphasized she was not at the event as a Romney supporter but as a representative of her organization.
Dan Chepke, a senior at Austintown Fitch High School, asked Romney what might be done to help students pay for college. The candidate responded not with an offer of aid but advice to shop around and find the school that best fits his budget, or join the military to get government help with paying for college.
“Basically he kind of just said suck it up or join the Army,” Chepke remarked, which “isn’t an awesome option. But I can see where he’s coming from. He doesn’t want to give out a lot of money,” he said. “He wants to try to cut back. That makes sense but I’d like to see a little bit more help with regard to student loans and stuff like Obama’s trying to do.”
Voting in his first presidential election this year, Chepke said he was still making up his mind following Monday’s event. “I’m definitely a little bit more toward Obama but after today I’m going to go home and question that a little bit and do more research and decide,” he said.
Bill Schoenfeld of Canfield pledged his support to Romney when he votes in today's primary. He praised the former Massachusetts governor for his positions on reducing the deficit through controlling and “cutting back on big government,” an area that needs to be addressed.
“I would say I was leaning toward him,” he said. “Some of the other candidates are very good but I feel he’s the best in the group right now.”
Liz Taylor of Boardman, who attended the event with her daughter, Lina, also posed questions to Romney during the event – hers concerned energy and Iran, and how he would address both differently from Obama.
“I had a lot of my questions answered and I think he gave a really good overview on what his plans are,” she said. “I wish he would have gone a little deeper in depth, especially as far as fracking is concerned, but overall I was very pleased.”
Acknowledging she was “a little bit undecided” prior to coming to the event, Taylor said she also likes Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, who are also competing for the GOP presidential nomination today along with Romney and Ron Paul. “But I think Issue No. 1 is electability and I do believe that Gov. Romney will have a wider appeal” to independents as well as Democrats, she said, citing the example of a woman at the event who identified herself as a Democrat who supports Romney.
Electability was among the key arguments U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, put forth in his support for Romney over Santorum. After polling that showed Santorum with a as much as an 18-percentage point lead over Romney in Ohio just a few weeks ago, more recent polls show a virtual tie coming into today’s contest here.
“That’s part of it. I do think most Republicans think that Mitt Romney’s got the best shot against Barack Obama,” said Portman, who introduced Romney at Monday’s event.
“I just think he’s our strongest candidate to take the case to the president” as well as “the best executive,” Portman said. “If anything ever needed a turnaround it’s the federal government, and he’s the guy that turns things around.”
Portman also described Romney as “the right guy for the Mahoning Valley and really our whole state because he’s the guy who understands how to bring back manufacturing jobs.” Although the Mahoning Valley is considered “a big Democratic area,” he said, “it’s kind of a swing area” with a lot of independent voters and conservative Democrats who will support Republicans. “I found that out in 2010. We did really well here,” he said.
Moreover, the freshman senator sai, Romney’s opposition to the federal role in rescuing General Motors and Chrysler shouldn’t hurt him among local voters, many of whom see that intervention as critical to preserving GM and the plant it operates in nearby Lordstown. Last week he won the GOP primary in Michigan, the heart of the domestic auto industry.
“He didn’t think there shouldn’t be U.S. auto companies” but that they should have gone through a “structured bankruptcy,” Portman said. “In the end you wouldn’t have had some of these problems like [Hudzik] was talking about,” he said.
Romney’s visit to Youngstown, the largest city in the predominantly Democratic Mahoning Valley, was somewhat of a surprise to local political operatives. He is the only one of the four remaining GOP presidential candidates to pay a visit to the area, and Republican presidential candidates haven’t typically paid much attention to the region until the general election campaign.
Mark Munroe, Mahoning County GOP chairman, said the party was contacted last Thursday regarding a potential Mahoning Valley venue. The Brilex Taylor-Winfield plant is one of the “positive success stories to come out of the Valley,” Munroe said.
“But more importantly it’s reflective of the concern and interest that the Romney folks have in the Valley,” he continued. “Clearly this is a heavily Democratic area but there are many Democrats this cycle who are looking for an alternative besides President Barack Obama. I’ve been approached by so many folks who say, ‘How can I become a Republican? How can I participate in the Republican primary?”
Munroe dismissed the notion that there has been little activity locally on the part of the Republican candidates, citing behind-the-scenes organizing activity and reaching out to volunteers. He was pleased with the turnout at the event, given its short notice, and thought Romney’s message “resonated well” with the audience.
“This guy’s going to do it. He’s going to be the Republican nominee and I think he’s going to go on and win November,” he predicted.
Romney, who in recent weeks has committed verbal missteps that served to highlight his wealth and which his opponents have used to portray him as disconnected with the concerns of working people, early in his remarks referred to his wife, Ann, as the “heavyweight champion” of his life.
Immediately realizing what he had said, he acknowledged that the comment didn’t come out the way he intended, “She’s just a great fighter is what I mean,” he corrected.
Ann Romney, who joined her husband for the event, helpfully told the crowd that if the campaign goes on much longer she will be the heavyweight champion. “Things are getting a little tight,” she said to applause. “This is what happens if you are on the campaign trial. We’ve been on this for a long time now and you don’t always get to eat like you like or exercise like you like or get the sleep you need.”
CLICK HERE to read summary of Romney's remarks, posted Monday afternoon.
CLICK HERE to read local and national commentary on Romney's exchange with Chepke.
WATCH "3 Minutes With' on our home page to view Romney's exchange with Hudzik.
Copyright 2012 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.