Call it payback.
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By Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY
Ohio Gov. John Kasich at the Republican National Convention in Tampa.
By Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY
Ohio Gov. John Kasich at the Republican National Convention in Tampa.
In 2009 and 2010, Mitt Romney attended dinners, sent letters and campaigned with GOP gubernatorial candidates around the country.
Some of those candidates are now governors of key swing states, and they depart the Republican National Convention prepared to return the favor, offering strategic guidance and deploying their networks of donors and volunteers to help elect Romney president in November.
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Nine of the 12 states identified in the USA TODAY/Gallup swing state poll have Republican governors and nearly all of them received some kind of aid from Romney and his Free & Strong America PAC while they were running for office.
Beyond endorsements, these governors say they have lent their organizations, on-the-ground knowledge and time to Romney's campaign.
"Republican governors, they won for a reason," said Romney political director Rich Beeson. "It's because they have good organizations and good ideas and those are both things that are very helpful to us. … Running a presidential is not a national campaign; it's a series of state campaigns," he said.
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell said he and his team have worked with the Romney campaign to develop "key bullets to help to convince independent voters to vote for Mitt Romney."
"We are also going to have a number of sessions with the Romney team and some of his advisers that will be discussing those strategies over these next 70 days in Virginia," he said.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich said, "I've introduced him, I've traveled with him and I'll continue to do that."
Several said they will use their own states' successes to show how Romney's policies would be better for the country.
Gov. Terry Branstad of Iowa said he plans to go "all out, all over Iowa" to tell voters they need a president that will work with him on the economy. "What Romney will do for America is what Republicans have done for their states," he said.
Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, who has a private equity background similar to Romney's, said his résumé will lend clout to his argument that Romney would make a better president.
Snyder said that although he is not satisfied with Michigan's growth, the positive trend shows his policies are working. "The biggest thing is what we've done, showing actual results," he said.
The challenge is that governors want to tout economic improvements in their states, but a chief argument for the Romney campaign has been the dismal state of the economy.
This dissonance has led to some awkward moments on the campaign trail.
During a joint event in Westerville, Ohio, this year, Kasich bragged about the growth of private-sector jobs and a good economic outlook for the state, then introduced Romney, who criticized President Obama's economic record.
In an interview Thursday, Kasich acknowledged "we were discordant during that time," but since then, Romney "came back, and he has consistently been saying what is being done in Ohio, we want to do nationally."
Former Florida governor Charlie Crist— who left the Republican Party two years ago and recently endorsed the president — said Obama is likely to get credit for economic improvement in those states no matter what the governors claim about the strength of Republican philosophies.
"Certainly not Mitt Romney," Crist said. "He's not even in office."
