This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Oct. 3, 2011 - WASHINGTON - Contending that Mitt Romney would be the strongest Republican presidential candidate in a general election, U.S. Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said Monday that he was organizing a meeting of Capitol Hill lawmakers to shore up congressional backing for Romney and perhaps attract new recruits.
"I'll be leading that team," Blunt told journalists in a conference call. "We're going to be meeting sometime in the next few days with members of the House and Senate who are in the process of, or have already endorsed [Romney] to talk about what we can do to line up more congressional support as a group."
Blunt, as a former House GOP leader and a likely contender for a Senate leadership post, is in a position to help Romney find backers in both houses of Congress. Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, announced last month that Blunt would spearhead his efforts on Capitol Hill.
While most U.S. senators tend to keep their political powder dry until a likely nominee emerges, there are some exceptions -- the most predictable being Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who is backing the candidacy of his father, Rep. Ron Paul, R-Tex. One of Romney's early backers in his unsuccessful 2008 campaign for the nomination, Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., has not yet endorsed a candidate this time around.
Campaign strategists for Romney have said that he would like to recruit freshmen House members who won election last fall. But many of those GOP lawmakers -- such as Missouri's Vicky Hartzler, R-Harrisonville, and Billy Long, R-Springfield -- cultivated tea party activists, who have tended to be lukewarm on Romney so far.
Meanwhile, Rep. Sam Graves, R-Tarkio, has endorsed Texas Gov. Rick Perry for the GOP nomination.
Blunt said one of Romney's biggest advantages is that he would be a strong candidate in a general election against President Barack Obama. "I think Republicans will want a candidate that can win," Blunt said. Romney "is best prepared to deal with the economic issues and, of the candidates running, the most likely to be elected president."
Blunt said he did not think the Missouri Republican Party's recent decision to hold a caucus, rather than a primary to allocate the state's presidential delegates would have much of an impact on Romney's candidacy. Others have predicted that caucuses, which tend to draw a higher percentage of political activists, might shift the vote towards tea party favorites.
"A February primary might have made us more of a player, but a March caucus makes it probably easier to unite the Missouri party around whoever the candidates are by that time," Blunt said. "I think it will be a very narrow field by that time, and one of the people in the field will be Gov. Romney."
The jockeying among states for early primaries now seems likely to spur Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada to move up their voting, perhaps to early January. On Monday, South Carolina Republicans said they would set their primary for Jan. 21, more than a week before Florida's new primary date of Jan. 31.
In his conference call with journalists, Blunt declined to criticize any of the other Republican candidates and said he would support the GOP's nominee in the 2012 general election campaign. "By the time of the Missouri caucuses, it's going to be much clearer who has put a campaign together around the country to allow victory to happen in November. And I believe that will benefit the Romney candidacy, which is fundraising and organizing all over the country ahead of others."
And Blunt made it clear that he expects Romney -- or whoever ends up as the GOP presidential candidate -- will win the Show Me State. "Everything I see ... indicates that Missouri will be a state that will vote for the Republican presidential candidate again."