Romney Denies Wall Street Ties

By Julie Hirschfeld Davis and Lisa Lerer - Jan 7, 2012 7:37 AM GMT+0700

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, working to solidify support in New Hampshire’s Jan. 10 primary, pushed back against critics who call him beholden to big business.

“I’m independent of Wall Street,” Romney, 64, said in an interview with Bloomberg Television airing today. “By the way, I haven’t ever worked on Wall Street.”

Romney, who made his fortune at the private equity firm Bain Capital LLC he helped found, said Wall Street firms were merely “service providers” to his company. The second-time Republican presidential candidate also argued he had created more jobs than he eliminated in lucrative deals that sometimes resulted in layoffs.

“The jobs created at Bain Capital by companies that we helped start or that we helped manage, those companies today employ well over 100,000 more jobs than, than those that were lost,” Romney said.

Democrats are holding a series of news conferences featuring workers who lost their jobs after Bain took over their companies.

Romney defended his own jobs record even as he criticized President Barack Obama’s economic performance on a day that saw the release of the best U.S. jobs report since February 2009.

While Romney said he was “delighted” to see the unemployment rate drop, he said Obama’s record had been a “failure.” Romney acknowledged that an improving economy “may well” boost Obama’s re-election chances.

“I’ll have to make sure that my message is clear and honed well,” Romney said.

Central Qualification

His rivals are working to turn the business experience Romney cites as his central qualification to be president against him as they seek to squelch his momentum in the race for the Republican nomination.

“It becomes very difficult when you’ve taken tens of millions of dollars from the banking community, from Wall Street and for many, many years, to have a discussion that fundamentally alters their course,” said former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “It can only be done, I would argue, by someone who isn’t a captive, a subsidiary of Wall Street.”

Romney held a 2-1 lead over his nearest rival in a poll of likely voters in the New Hampshire primary. Romney had 44 percent support compared with 20 percent for Texas Representative Ron Paul in a poll sponsored by WMUR-TV and conducted Jan. 2-5 by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center.

Lagging Behind

The poll showed former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum lagging behind, each with 8 percent, and Huntsman with 7 percent. All four of his competitors have been criticizing Romney with growing intensity as New Hampshire’s primary approaches.

“I’m ready for what anyone wants to bring my way,” Romney said of Gingrich’s recent attacks. “Politics ain’t beanbags.”

While confident of his chances in New Hampshire, where he owns a vacation home and is a familiar former governor of a neighboring state, Romney wouldn’t predict a victory. And he said he has work to do in the next contest in South Carolina, which holds its primary Jan. 21.

“South Carolina for me is a come-from-behind kind of state,” Romney said. “I’ve got to put in some real shoe leather there.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Julie Hirschfeld Davis in Tilton, New Hampshire at 1890 or Jdavis159@bloomberg.net; Lisa Lerer in Tilton, New Hampshire, at llerer@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva@bloomberg.net