When Romney took office, he inherited a $3.2 billion budget deficit. He eliminated it while avoiding any broad-based tax increase. He closed corporate tax loopholes, which brought in an estimated $400 million annually, and increased fees for a number of services, which produced $250 million to $500 million.

Romney spokesman Kevin Madden said this wasn't a tax increase but "user-based fees, many of which hadn't been brought into line with what the administration of services was costing."

Michael J. Widmer, the president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a Boston-based research group, had a different take: "He raised corporate taxes."

Exit polls showed that economic issues were Michigan voters' overwhelming concern, and they picked the businessman with the golden resume.They liked Romney's pitch about his long record of bringing together all kinds of different interests and finding solutions. They heard him talk about how he helped steer a comprehensive health-care bill through the Democrat-dominated Massachusetts legislature.

The question for Romney is whether his Michigan pitch will work anywhere else. The state's economy is in worse shape than any other state's, and Romney, as the son of a former Michigan auto executive and governor, had a unique claim to understanding what makes the local economy tick.

"There's no doubt the country's in a slowdown, but remember he was playing this week on his home turf," said Peter Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "Let's see how he does on the road."