He demanded work for welfare recipients and talked tough on immigration, mandatory drug sentencing, and the death penalty. And, running in a state where the GOP's limited success had come mostly from fiscally conservative, socially liberal candidates, Romney staked out moderate positions on some issues.

He supported the assault weapons ban and the Brady gun-control law. He favored indexing the minimum wage to inflation. In a letter to an organization of gay Republicans, he claimed he would be a stronger advocate for their rights than Kennedy.

And he advocated abortion rights, even backing the abortion-inducing pill RU-486.

Romney stressed his own family values to create a contrast with Kennedy, who had a past reputation for womanizing. One commercial showed Mitt and Ann on their porch with glasses of lemonade. Asked to name his greatest personal failing, Romney lamented that he only had time to help the needy one day a week.

It was the year Newt Gingrich was pushing his Contract with America, but Romney distanced himself from Gingrich and rejected help from the national right-wing apparatus.

"I don't want their money. I don't want their help," Romney said. "This is my race."

He was more welcoming of help from his family.

During the campaign kickoff, George Romney introduced his son, signaling the active role the former Michigan governor would play in the race and the re-emergence of the father-son dynamic that had defined Mitt Romney's early life.

Before long, George and Lenore moved into the guest suite above Mitt and Ann's garage, and George wasted no time in tutoring his son in politics.

On the trail and on the fund-raising circuit, the vigorous 86-year-old was a celebrity stand-in for his son, relishing his return to the podium. Years later, Mitt Romney would recall watching the cameras shift away from him and onto his irrepressible father during press conferences, as George shook his fist and spoke his mind.

Despite the similarities between father and son in appearance and career path, the race highlighted the differences in their makeup. Behind the scenes, George — whose unguarded nature had hastened his downfall in the 1968 presidential campaign — admonished Mitt to loosen up, stop listening to consultants, and trust his gut.

Mitt had always been more careful and wary than his father, according to family members, and, in that way, more like his mother. In fact, his race against Kennedy had stronger parallels to his mother's single run for office than any of his father's campaigns.

Lenore Romney ran for US Senate in 1970 against popular Democratic incumbent Philip Hart. Taking a break from college to help out, 23-year-old Mitt turned to his older brother, Scott, and said, "Gee, you and I ought to be running this campaign."