Governorship of Mitt Romney

Willard Mitt Romney was sworn in as the 70th Governor of Massachusetts on January 2, 2003, along with Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey. His term ended on January 4, 2007. He filed the papers establishing his exploratory presidential committee the day before leaving office.

Inauguration

Romney's swearing in used the same Bible that his father George Romney had used as the Governor of Michigan. In his 15-minute inauguration speech in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, he avoided policy specifics but said that he intended to bring about a “lighter, more agile bureaucracy.”

Upon taking office, Romney faced a state legislature in which Democrats held 85 percent of the seats. Indeed, the state Republican Party had fielded no candidate for 62 percent of the seats during the 2002 state elections.

From the outset Romney sought to show himself as the state's first 'CEO governor'. His choices for the executive cabinet choices included well-known figures such as Democrat Robert Pozen, former vice chairman of Fidelity Investments, and Douglas Foy, who had served as president of the Conservation Law...
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