Up until now former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has sort of been like the high school boy trying to invite a girl to the prom. Now he’s like a dumped boyfriend: Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine has dumped Romney for rising anti-Romney rival for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination former Sen. Rick Santorum. Romney must be severely shocked:
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s decision to withdraw his support from Mitt Romney and throw it behind Rick Santorum didn’t just come as a shock to pundits and politicos watching the Republican primary—it appears to have blindsided the Romney campaign itself.
Sources inside the Romney campaign told BuzzFeed that DeWine never called to make known his intentions of switching endorsements. And another Republican who spoke to a top Romney aide as rumors swirled said that as of late this morning, campaign officials had no inkling that the Ohio AG was planning to flip his support.
The Romney campaign initially went silent when BuzzFeed first reported earlier today that an Ohio Romney backer was planning to switch his endorsement: multiple e-mails and phone calls seeking comment from campaign officials went unreturned.
Campaign sources later said they believe DeWine was unhappy with their candidate’s opposition to a felon voting bill that was backed by DeWine, Santorum, and Arlen Specter—and no other Republicans.
That sounds like the Romney campaign is whining about DeWine. The Romney camp is used to getting endorsement — not unendorsements. And it’s not a good sign when people start to jump ship.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.