Mitt Romney decides against signing ‘inappropriate’ Marriage Vow pledge in Iowa

Image by Matt MahurinFormer Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has taken a look at a 2012 social pledge introduced by an Iowa religious conservative organization and has decided not to sign.

The Marriage Vow” was introduced by The Family Leader last week, and has thus far garnered support from U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann and former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum. It has also drawn the ire of former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson.

Andrea Saul, spokeswoman for Romney, told CNN late Tuesday night that their campaign’s intentions toward the document lay somewhere in the middle.

“Mitt Romney strongly supports traditional marriage, but he felt this pledge contained references and provisions that were undignified and inappropriate for a presidential campaign.”

Based on the statement, it appears that Romney considered the whole of the pledge — the second-page vow portion, the first-page preamble and footnotes — to be what he would be endorsing with his signature. Since being the first candidate to offer her signature on the document, Bachmann has attempted to qualify her support by saying she only endorsed the actual vow and not other controversial statements originally contained in the pledge. Specifically, the Bachmann campaign attempted to distance itself from an intensely controversial statement related to slavery, which was later deleted by The Family Leader two days after the pledge was released.

In addition to announcing its intentions toward the social pledge, the Romney campaign also distributed a statement by Iowa Rep. Renee Schulte (R-Cedar Rapids) that in part noted her support for the candidate stemmed from his support for traditional marriage, and her pleasure in Romney’s refusal to sign “this ill-advised pledge.”

“The Family Leader would do more to advance the issues that conservatives like Mitt and I support if they kept it simple,” she said.

Also on Tuesday, the Romney campaign rolled out a list of additional members on its state leadership team:

  • Iowa Sen. James Hahn of Muscatine
  • Mark Hudson, former Linn County GOP chairman (who will serve as the campaign’s state volunteer legal counsel)
  • Paul Bissinger of Dallas County
  • Patrick Finnegan of Des Moines, a former UNI College Republican chairman
  • Dr. Stephen Hunter of Iowa City
  • Lorene Hunter of Iowa City

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