Romney reaches out to Hawaii ahead of caucuses

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney pitched his presidential campaign to Hawaii Republicans on Friday, telling voters that his leadership record and business experience separate him from his Republican challengers and President Barack Obama.

In a telephone conference call ahead of the Hawaii GOP caucuses, Romney, speaking from Florida, also said that he showed as governor that he could find common ground on issues in a predominantly Demo­cratic state.

"This is a critical time. As you know, we’ve got some other good people running for president, but I’m the only person among the Republican field — well, actually I’m the only person including the Demo­crat and the Republicans — who has actually run something before," he said.

"I’ve run a state and run the Olympics and run two different businesses."

Romney, former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and U.S. Rep. Ron Paul are on the ballot Tuesday evening for Hawaii’s first-ever GOP presidential caucuses. Republicans will also vote Tuesday in primaries in Alabama and Mississippi.

The Romney conference call was among the visible signs that the Republican presidential campaign had reached the islands. The Paul campaign began television advertisements on Thursday portraying the Texas congressman as a fiscal conservative with the will to make significant budget cuts to reduce the federal deficit.

While none of the candidates have scheduled a campaign stop in Hawaii before the vote, they are sending family members as surrogates. Ronnie Paul, Paul’s eldest son, is campaigning in the islands for his father. Elizabeth Santorum, Santorum’s eldest daughter, has an appearance set for Sunday. Matt Romney, one of Romney’s five sons, has an event on Monday.

David Chang, the state’s GOP chairman, said he is estimating a 5,000- to 10,000-voter turnout for the caucuses, which will determine which candidates get 17 of the state’s 20 delegates to the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., this summer. The minority party had previously awarded delegates to presidential candidates at state party conventions, but switched to the caucuses as a potential party-building tool.

Roughly 45,000 Republicans voted in the past few GOP primaries, so the caucuses will involve a much smaller pool of voters. Several Republicans had argued against the caucuses as a waste of the party’s limited resources, but Chang said the interest by the presidential campaigns shows it could be worth the effort.

While former Gov. Linda Lingle, the state’s most influential Republican, has said she will not endorse until the party convention this summer, other popular Republicans, such as former U.S. Rep. Charles Djou and former U.S. Rep. Pat Saiki, have endorsed Romney. In addition to some solid establishment backing, Romney, a Mormon, is expected to draw strong support from Mormon communities on Oahu and around the state.

There is also a network of GOP activists who for several years have been faithful to Paul, giving the Texas congressman a chance of winning his first contest. Christian conservatives, if they choose to get involved in large numbers, could help Santorum. Gingrich is the only candidate still in the field who has personally appeared in the islands during the campaign.

Romney, during his conference call on Friday, sought to distinguish himself from Obama by saying he would increase military shipbuilding, aircraft purchases and personnel, be more aggressive about developing oil and natural gas resources in the United States and reduce federal regulation to help businesses.

He said if elected, he would sign an executive order putting all Obama-era regulations on hold for review, eliminating the rules he believes put jobs at risk. "One of the things I have to do to get the economy growing again is to take a weed whacker to a lot of the regulations in Washington," he said.

The Hawaii-born Obama is expected to carry the traditionally Demo­cratic state in November. Local Republicans wanted to hear how Romney would be different from the president, including one who asked Romney — who has been criticized by some of his opponents as a "Massachusetts moderate" — to dispel the idea he would be "Obama-lite."

"I’m a conservative through and through," he said.