Mass. Governor's Rightward Shift Raises Questions

One group he went out of his way to court was the gay rights community. While he noted that he opposed same-sex marriage, Romney said that "certain benefits and privileges should be offered to gay couples and lesbian couples." Acknowledging that Kennedy had a strong record on sexual-orientation issues, Romney said his GOP identity gave his words extra weight.

"There's something to be said for having a Republican who supports civil rights in this broader context, including sexual orientation," he told Bay Windows, a Boston-area newspaper for the gay community, in an Aug. 18, 1994, interview. "When Ted Kennedy speaks on gay rights, he's seen as an extremist. When Mitt Romney speaks on gay rights, he's seen as a centrist and a moderate."

He said he would push gay rights issues if elected. "I think the gay community needs more support from the Republican Party, and I would be a voice in the Republican Party to foster anti-discrimination efforts," he said then.

In an Oct. 6, 1994, letter to the Log Cabin Club of Massachusetts, a GOP gay and lesbian group, Romney endorsed broad federal anti-discrimination protections and the creation of a federal panel to address gay and lesbian youth suicide. He called President Bill Clinton's "don't ask, don't tell" military policy "the first of a number of steps that will ultimately lead to gays and lesbians being able to serve openly and honestly in our nation's military."

Romney has since backed away from his endorsement of that federal anti-discrimination statute and from his previously expansive position on gay people in the military. On that issue, he told National Review Online, he now defers to military leaders.

Fehrnstrom said Romney remains opposed to discrimination against gay men and lesbians, though his focus in the past few years has shifted to the issue of same-sex marriage. "Even as the governor has emerged nationally as a prime defender of traditional marriage, he always cloaks his rhetoric in tolerance and respect for people of all walks of life," he said.

Romney has long said he personally opposes abortion, and in an Oct. 25, 1994, debate with Kennedy, he was asked to reconcile his personal beliefs with his support for abortion rights.

"I believe that abortion should be safe and legal in this country," Romney responded. "I have, since the time when my mom took that position when she ran in 1970 as a U.S. Senate candidate. I believe that since Roe v. Wade has been the law for 20 years, we should sustain and support it. I sustain and support that law and the right of a woman to make that choice. And my personal beliefs, like the personal beliefs of other people, should not be brought into a political campaign."

He ran for governor in 2002 promising to preserve the status quo on abortion in Massachusetts, saying he would oppose changes that either liberalized or restricted access to abortion. He has lived up to that promise. But in late 2004, as he studied the issue of embryonic stem cell research, he underwent what he has called an awakening that led him to the conclusion that "the sanctity of life had been cheapened" by the Roe decision.

That led him to describe himself as "pro-life." Still, he remained cagey about what that meant in terms of public policy, saying only that he would abide by his 2002 campaign promise. Asked in an interview with Washington Post reporters in February 2005 whether he favored making abortion illegal, he replied: "I'm telling you exactly what I will do as governor of Massachusetts, but I'm not going to tell you what I'd do as mayor of Boston or a congressman or any of those positions."

In the 1994 campaign, Romney also proudly labeled himself a moderate. "I'm not a partisan politician," he said in an interview with The Post that fall. "My hope is that, after this election, it will be the moderates of both parties who will control the Senate, not the Jesse Helmses."

Helms, the former Republican senator from North Carolina, was one of the most conservative elected officials in the country.

In his 1994 debate with Kennedy, Romney also refused to endorse the "Contract With America," which House Republicans had proudly presented as their campaign manifesto, and he balked when Kennedy tried to link him to the Reagan administration. "I was an independent during the time of Reagan-Bush," Romney retorted.

Questions about Romney's conservative credentials could provide an opening for several other Republicans exploring 2008 candidacies, among them Sen. Sam Brownback (Kan.) and outgoing Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.

Several conservative leaders, Falwell among them, declined to be interviewed for this article. One said it is premature to comment publicly. But Paul M. Weyrich, who is head of the Free Congress Foundation, said Romney should not underestimate the problem he may face as he prepares to launch his campaign.

"I think it's very serious," he said. "Our position is that, if a candidate can change his position sort of overnight, what would he do once he got in office? Would he do the same thing?"