James Bopp Jr, RNC Member, Endorses Romney

Constitutional scholar and Republican National Committee member James
Bopp Jr. has endorsed Mitt Romney for the GOP nomination for president.

In an open letter released Tuesday evening, Bopp said he believes that the future of the United States depends on replacing President Barack Obama with a president "who supports free enterprise, limited government, traditional family values, and a strong national defense, based upon the principles of our United States Constitution."

Bopp said that he has stayed neutral in the GOP race because of his involvement with the Republican National Committee and his hope that one candidate who could defeat Obama would emerge from the pack.

"That candidate has now emerged and, as a result, it is time to put aside our minor intra-family differences, to end the increasingly divisive primary fight, and to unite to focus on achieving ourshared goal of defeating President Obama. That candidate is Governor Mitt Romney," he said.

Following are the highlights from Bopp's statement:

"Mitt Romney is a true conservative. One does not have to guess what Mitt
Romney would do in office. He served for four years as governor of
Massachusetts and has a record that conservatives should be proud of.

"As governor, Romney fought for social conservative values. He vetoed bills that would have authorized state funding of embryonic cloning, would have changed the definition of human life from fertilization to implantation and would have given young women the morning-after abortion pill without a prescription. He promoted abstinence education in public schools.

"When the Massachusetts Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, he left no stone unturned to set aside that ruling. And in contrast to the Obama administration's war on the Catholic Church by mandating their institutions to provide contraceptives and abortion-inducing drugs in their health care plans, Governor Romney vetoed a bill that would have required Catholic hospitals to offer abortion-inducing drugs to potential rape victims.

"Of course, it is true that Romney had a conversion to the pro-life cause, not unlike other Republicans such as Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. We should not only embrace him as a result of this conversion, but also recognize that he is a success story. But the best test of the sincerity of a conversion is deeds, and Mitt Romney was 'consistently pro-life' as
governor, according to the president of Massachusetts Citizens for Life.

"On ... the economy and federal taxes and spending, Romney also has a
remarkable record. As a private investor in struggling businesses, Romney
was very successful in turning them around. As governor, he issued more
than 800 vetoes and cut taxes 19 times. The result, in a state with an
overwhelmingly Democratic legislature, is that he closed a $3 billion
budget gap and turned it into a $2 billion rainy-day fund."

Bopp, a campaign finance lawyer in Indiana who also co-founded the
Republican National Conservative Caucus and the RNC Conservative Steering Committee, said that Romney's success in winning  New Hampshire, Florida and Nevada, has shown that he's the most likely Republican candidate to defeat Obama.