Romney gets veteran consultants

The Romney machine is slowly coming to life in South Carolina, with the Republican presidential candidate retaining two veteran S.C. political consultants Friday to help guide his campaign down the three-week stretch leading to the state’s Jan. 21 primary.

Warren Tompkins, who has guided candidates to victory four times in South Carolina’s GOP primary, and Luke Byars, the state director for U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, a Republican from Greenville, say they have agreed to advise Romney’s campaign on a voluntary basis for the next three weeks.

The move is another indication that Romney is revving up what so far has been an idle campaign in the Palmetto State.

The former Massachusetts governor has two key statewide endorsements — Gov. Nikki Haley and Treasurer Curtis Loftis. Also, Restore our Future — a super PAC allied with Romney, whose ads have been used to devastating effect on Newt Gingrich in Iowa — already has purchased air time in S.C. markets.

Now, with Tompkins and Byars, Romney is putting the pieces in place to make a run at winning South Carolina, a state that spurned him in 2008, when he spent millions of dollars and countless hours here.

Tompkins has helped guide four candidates to wins in the S.C. Republican primary — Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bob Dole and George W. Bush. Byars is a former executive director of the S.C. Republican Party.

Tompkins and Byars, who operate the First Tuesday Strategies consulting firm, said they will not be paid for their work. Both worked for Romney in the 2008 election, when the former governor of Massachusetts finished a disappointing fourth in South Carolina.

“Warren Tompkins is not the kind of guy that goes aboard sinking ships,” said Neal Thigpen, a political science professor at Francis Marion University. “He’s been around so long and knows the state Republican party so well, that you know for him to sign on — paid or unpaid — is a good, healthy sign for Romney.”

Romney currently is running second — behind former U.S. Speaker of the House Gingrich — in polls of likely S.C. primary voters.

Many S.C. Republicans have viewed Romney suspiciously because of what they see as his flip-flopping on social issues, including abortion. Wary, state GOP voters have ushered in a revolving door of frontrunners, jumping from U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota to Texas Gov. Rick Perry to Georgia businessman Herman Cain to, finally, Gingrich.

But Romney has had steady support in South Carolina, routinely polling in the low- to mid-20s.

Tompkins says Romney is the only candidate who can address the country’s troubled economy.

“People need to vote with their head, not necessarily with their heart,” Tompkins said. “If we don’t straighten out America’s financial mess, all of the other stuff we care about on a social basis won’t matter.”

Byars and Tompkins flirted with several presidential campaigns early in the election cycle but did not sign on with anyone. Instead, they followed the example of DeMint, their biggest client, who said he does not plan to endorse a candidate.

However, Tompkins said that now that the GOP race has more “clarity,” the time was right to help Romney, adding he has been in “serious discussions” with the campaign since November.

“I’m sure if we wanted to get paid we could get paid,” Tompkins said. “Sometimes, it’s not always about money, but doing what you think is right and what is best for the things you believe in.”

Romney has just one office in the state, in West Columbia, and only three paid staffers. But his supporters, including state Rep. Phyllis Henderson, R-Greenville, say Romney plans to pick up the pace of his S.C. campaign after Tuesday’s Iowa caucuses.