Republicans: The Citizen's Candidate

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Soapbox Missionary. Romney was born in Mexico. His grandfather, who had four wives, fled across the border from Arizona in 1885 to avoid antipolygamy laws in the U.S. But Romney's father was a monogamist, and brought his family back to the States when George was five.* George studied for a year at the Latter-day Saints Junior College in Salt Lake City, in 1927 went to England and Scotland as a Mormon missionary. There he got his first experience in public speaking, preaching from a soapbox in London's Hyde Park. Returning after two years, he got in some more schooling at the University of Utah and at George Washington University, went to work in Washington as a tariff specialist for Massachusetts' Democratic Senator David Walsh. In the 1930s, he was a lobbyist for the aluminum industry: in 1939 he became Detroit manager of the Automobile Manufacturers Association, and during the war he helped to organize the Automotive Council for War Production. In 1948 he joined Nash-Kelvinator—forerunner of American Motors—as assistant to the chairman, took over the presidency of the company in 1954.

From 1956 to 1959, Romney was chairman of the Detroit Citizens Advisory Committee on School Needs, brought together divergent views of all segments of the community. The committee submitted 182 proposals to the board of education. All but a few of them have since been incorporated into the Detroit school system. That success led in 1959 to the idea that perhaps Michigan's economic troubles could be cured by a nonpartisan "citizen's approach." Romney discussed it with friends, brought together a group of Michigan leaders (including Ford Motor Co.'s Robert McNamara, now Secretary of Defense), and by June of that year had formed a 300-man group called "Citizens for Michigan."

How to Get Along. From that came the organization of Michigan's Constitutional Convention—popularly known as the "Con-Con." It was meant to modernize the state's preposterously out-of-date constitution, and Romney was the unquestioned leader of the conclave. But very soon it was a wide-open secret that Romney meant to run for Governor, and in due course the convention bogged down in partisan politics. Romney was forced to make concessions to ultraconservative rural Republicans—and even if he hadn't. Democratic delegates would have found political cause for criticism. As a result, in running for Governor, Romney's main problem was answering charges that he would be subservient to the "Neanderthals" who continue to dominate the state legislature. Said Romney: "If men are treated like Neanderthals, they respond like Neanderthals. I'll get along with them."