style="border:1px solid #999999;">Related contentEconomist.com:

Mr. Smooth of Massachusetts Within days his campaign had produced television advertisements for a rapid response to any Democratic attacks. It was a lesson learned from the Kennedy onslaught in '94.

"I am going to be the one defining myself to the voters on who I am and what I will do as governor," Romney told the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. "This time I'll win."

His uncontested march to the Republican nomination soon hit a roadblock when the Massachusetts Democratic Party challenged his candidacy, contending Romney's three years in Utah disqualified him because the Massachusetts Constitution requires seven years of residency before the election.

Initially, Romney's campaign insisted that he had filed his federal income taxes as a resident of Massachusetts. But soon after, he acknowledged he had filed as a Utah resident for two years and had amended those tax returns after announcing his candidacy to show Massachusetts as his home.

Democrats contended that Romney, who had owned homes in Belmont since 1971, had been reserving the option of running for office in Utah.

Romney was incensed: "Any effort to try to remove me by hook and crook and trick and legal machinations is going to end up failing," he told reporters.

Over three days in June, the state Ballot Law Commission heard evidence about his tax returns and the fact that the Romneys' Utah home had been classified as his "primary residence," giving him an $18,000 property-tax break each of three years.

Romney attributed the mistakes to his accountant and the local tax assessor, who under oath acknowledged the error and after the commission proceedings sent him a new bill to recoup $54,587.

If the tax filings suggested Romney was hedging his political bets, the evidence also showed he always maintained his Belmont voting address - choosing George W. Bush over John McCain in the 2000 Republican presidential primary, he recently said - and had returned for special occasions while in Utah, maintaining ties to Bay State boards and organizations.

"He never severed his ties to Massachusetts," and "his testimony was credible in all respects," the board concluded in a unanimous, 41-page decision.