Romney to campaign in 25 states ahead of midterms

Former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney (R) is set for a midterm campaign swing for fellow Republicans that will take him to at least 25 states before Election Day.

According to the Boston Globe, Romney is kicking off the heavy campaign schedule Tuesday night by headlining a fundraiser for the New Hampshire state Republican Party. 

The increase in Romney's activity will also include a change in style, according to the Globe's Sasha Issenberg:

But the most dramatic re invention may be a stylistic one: Romney is seeking to come across as more easygoing and accessible than the formally dressed, perfectly coiffed, carefully rehearsed candidate of the last campaign. 

“Mitt is doing a better job at low-keying it,’’ said Steve Duprey, a former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party who supported McCain in 2008 and was a vocal Romney critic at the time. “He would be wise to stay with it right through a presidential primary.’’

New Hampshire is the place Romney’s advisers and allies say they see Mitt at rest: a wearer of jeans and driver of a black 2003 Chevy Silverado pickup truck. Some of them are hoping that Romney’s laid-back summer lifestyle will survive Labor Day and endure onto the campaign trail, helping to erase the impression many voters have had of a wealthy candidate almost animatronically focused on winning. 

“That’s the Mitt Romney that I know and really enjoy — not the guy they say is too perfect, too stiff,’’ said Ron Kaufman, a longtime Romney adviser who visited him this summer. “The public image of a lot of these folks in office are often 100 degrees out of whack with reality.’’

Among the 2012 presidential hopefuls on the Republican side, Romney has been among the most active thus far in 2010. His political action committee has donated to more than 100 GOP candidates, and he has focused fundraising efforts on down-ballot candidates in New Hampshire and South Carolina.