Mitt Romney
joining crowded field of presidential hopefuls

Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney said Wednesday that he's taking the first step in a 2008 presidential bid, joining an increasingly crowded field of Republican hopefuls. ''We've filed exploratory papers today, and so the process is moving forward on that front,'' he told reporters Wednesday, his final full day in office. He added, ''No announcement date for you yet,'' but he is planning a major fund-raiser in Boston on Monday.

A spokesman for Romney later said the paperwork officially would be filed late Wednesday afternoon in Washington with the Federal Election Commission. The formation of an exploratory committee allows Romney to raise and spend money for a presidential run.

Romney's confirmation of his plans comes after a 10-day period of contemplation during a family vacation in Utah and follows several years in which he acknowledged he was considering a White House run but hadn't made a final decision about pursuing the presidency. If elected, Romney would be the nation's first Mormon president.

The one-term governor joins a GOP field in which Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani have grabbed the lead in early polling. Both created exploratory committees late last year.

Other Republican candidates include Kansas senator Sam Brownback and former Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson, who have established exploratory committees. California representative Duncan Hunter and former Virginia governor Jim Gilmore have said they intend to follow suit. Others said to be mulling a bid include Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, New York governor George Pataki, Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel, and former Oklahoma governor Frank Keating.

In recent weeks Romney has faced questions about his conservative credentials on issues such as gay rights and abortion. Romney challenged Democratic senator Edward Kennedy in 1994, and in a letter he promised a gay Republican group he would be a stronger advocate for gays than his rival.

Romney ran as a moderate during his gubernatorial campaign. Despite saying he personally opposed abortion, he not only pledged to leave the state's abortion laws intact but noted that his mother, Lenore, ran for the U.S. Senate from Michigan in 1970 as a supporter of abortion rights. He now stresses his opposition to abortion in speeches across the country.

In 2002, Romney's supporters also handed out fliers with well wishes from him and his running mate at Boston's annual gay pride parade. And he was endorsed by the Log Cabin Republicans, a group of gay party activists.

Nonetheless, Romney has insisted his opposition to same-sex marriage has been unflinching. He has lambasted the Massachusetts supreme judicial court for its November 2003 decision making Massachusetts the first state to legalize same-sex marriage.

Not only does Romney diverge from conservatives on some social issues, but many evangelical Christians don't consider the Mormon Church a true branch of Christianity.

Romney's decision makes him the third Massachusetts resident to run for the White House in recent years, following Democrats Michael S. Dukakis and John Kerry in 1988 and 2004. Neither man succeeded.

Dukakis panned Romney's announcement as he arrived at the statehouse on Wednesday to witness the swearing-in of new legislators. ''Here's a guy who left the governor's office about two years ago, and now he says he wants to run for president?'' Dukakis said. ''Doesn't make a lot of sense to me.''

Willard Mitt Romney, 59, is the son of former Michigan governor George Romney, who ran unsuccessfully for the presidency in 1968. Mitt Romney received his B.A. in 1971 from Brigham Young University and then went on to simultaneously earn degrees from Harvard Business and Law schools, graduating cum laude from law school and in the top 5% of his business school class.

Romney remained in Boston, where he helped found a multibillion-dollar venture capital firm and amassed a multimillion-dollar fortune. He rose to national prominence when he successfully resurrected the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, which were mired in a bribery scandal.

His only major failure was the unsuccessful campaign against Kennedy in 1994, although he performed better than many pundits had expected.

Romney was reared in Bloomfield Hills, Mich., an exclusive suburb of Detroit. His father was chairman of American Motors Corp. and has been credited with coining the phrases ''compact car'' and ''gas-guzzling dinosaur.''

Romney sought and won the chairmanship of the Republican Governors Association, allowing him to spend the 2006 midterm election traveling the country and dispensing cash to his party's gubernatorial candidates. He raised a record $20 million and was especially generous with governors association money in states with early presidential primaries or caucuses, such as Iowa, Florida, and his native Michigan. (AP)