MICHELE NORRIS, Host:
This is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED from NPR News. I'm Michele Norris.
ROBERT SIEGEL, Host:
And I'm Robert Siegel.
Mitt Romney is in South Carolina tonight for the Republican presidential debate. That state holds the first primary in the south next Saturday. But Romney won't be there long. He is eyeing Michigan, where he grew up and where his father was a popular governor. Romney's campaign is calling Michigan their firewall, the place where they say they plan to stop John McCain.
NORRIS: NPR's Scott Horsley has been following the Romney campaign. He joins us now from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
Hello, Scott.
SCOTT HORSLEY: Good to be with you, Michele.
NORRIS: Now, to what extent is Romney now staking his campaign almost entirely on Michigan?
HORSLEY: Well, he's making a big bet on Michigan. Not only has he pulled his ads here in South Carolina but he's also devoting most of his personal campaigning time to Michigan. He was originally scheduled to stay here in South Carolina after the debate and do some campaigning tomorrow. Instead, he's going straight back to Michigan. He is running ads in Michigan that talk about how he shares Michigan values and touting his personal ties to the state, not only that he grew up there, of course, but his father was a popular, three-term governor in Michigan.
Some of the rival campaigns, I think, are skeptical if this is really going to work for Mitt Romney. Some of the John McCain camp were joking this morning that anyone in Michigan who remembers George Romney has probably moved to Arizona by now.
NORRIS: And Scott, this is interesting because Mitt Romney, for a long time had boasted that he was running a national campaign.
HORSLEY: Absolutely. I mean, as recently as a week ago, he was saying after finishing second in Iowa that he had the money, the resources and the strong organization to run coast to coast. And, in fact, he had criticized opponents for cherry-picking the states where they decided to play. He'd said that Mike Huckabee made a mistake in running only in Iowa, John McCain in focusing almost exclusively on New Hampshire. Of course, that cherry-picking strategy worked for Huckabee and McCain - they won in those two states and that's been a setback for Mitt Romney, whose whole strategy counted on early wins to help him build momentum. Now, he's got his back to the wall and he apparently feels like he has to win Michigan so he's putting all of his resources there.
NORRIS: There is no doubt that Mitt Romney has great personal wealth(ph) he's had this big campaign war chest but is the money now starting to dry up?
HORSLEY: Well, not exactly. He had a much-publicized telephone fundraiser yesterday when they reached out to contributors and actually raised about $5 million. But the lion's share of that was for the general election. In fact, his financial people were guaranteeing donors that if Romney is not the ultimate nominee, they'll get their money back. As we said, Mitt Romney's a multimillionaire he's already spent more than $17 million of his own just to (unintelligible) on the campaign. You know, he was spending about $300,000 a week on ads here in South Carolina so another week-and-a-half of ads wouldn't exactly broken the bank. Part of the question may be what message to use in those ads. He used a lot of negative commercials in Iowa and New Hampshire. It didn't work for him. It might even hurt him somewhat, so pulling the ads may be as much about retooling the message as conserving cash.
NORRIS: So, Mitt Romney is trying to get his mojo back in Michigan, what message does he use?
HORSLEY: Well, one of the things he was talking about on the campaign trail yesterday is to focus voters were putting on the economy and especially in Michigan, which has been hard hit. He has argued that as a businessman and someone from the private sector, he has the knowhow to create jobs. And that's certainly a plausible argument. Unfortunately for Romney, exit polls in New Hampshire showed the voters who were most concerned about the economy actually tilted towards John McCain. And former Arkansas Governor Huckabee has, is now waging at least a token campaign in Michigan and he's running ads there with a line he tried out in New Hampshire, that voters want a president who reminds them of a co-worker, not the guy who laid them off.
NORRIS: Thank you, Scott.
HORSLEY: My pleasure, Michele.
NORRIS: That was NPR's Scott Horsley speaking to us from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.