Mitt Romney

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney endorsed Charlie Summers for Congress today.

Romney, a former presidential candidate, won the Maine Republican caucuses in February before dropping out of the race.

In a statement, Romney said:

"Conservatism's strength is based in the belief in family, the individual, and the goodness of America and Charlie Summers embodies that strength. His experience in the private sector combined with his service as a Maine State Senator, as head of the Small Business Administration in New England, and most recently his service in Iraq make him the ideal person to represent Maine in the United States Congress. Charlie embodies the qualities necessary to effectively represent his constituency from the moment he is sworn-in as Maine's next First District Congressman.

"Today, I am proud to endorse Charlie Summers and I encourage all my Maine supporters to actively campaign and vote for Charlie on June 10th.”

Summers said: "I am honored by Governor Romney's support. Maine voters strongly showed their support for Governor Romney during the March Presidential caucuses and his strength among Maine voters will continue to build the momentum of this campaign through the primary and on to a win in November."

Summers is running as a Republican in the First Congressional District.

Dean Scontras, Summers opponent, has made major in-roads with the conservative base of the party, and the Romney endorsement is an attempt to beat back some of the gains resulting from  Dean's more conservative credentials.

Endorsements are not votes. They provide a nice bump for the campaign, but the only endorsement that matters is on June 10th. 

Schedule? We don't need no stinkin' schedule!

The Maine GOP hierarchy lost control of their own convention timeline. Whether it was the fault of Chairman Mark Ellis and Executive Director Julie O'Brien or the long-winded tendencies of Republican politicians and activists, who can say? Regardless, elections for National Committeeman and Committeewoman moved along at a snail's pace, Olympia Snowe's speech took longer than Astroturf takes to grow, and the House Republican demonstration, in which every candidate each remarked on their upcoming race, competed for most yawns. As a result, Congressional candidates were shortchanged, Mark Ellis turned down his opportunity to address the convention and convention business usually taken up by delegates was turned over to the state committee for future consideration.

At the Maine Republican convention, Mitt Romney talked to the crowd about his endorsement of John McCain, differentiating him from the Democrats in the race. He applauded the Republican Party for uniting themselves around one candidate.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who dropped out of the presidential race, was the keynote speaker at the Maine GOP Convention Friday. At a press conference before his speech, PolitickerME.com got a chance to speak with him about his future plans.

Romney said he is starting up a Political Action Committee, or a similar entity. He is still hashing out the details with his lawyers.

He said the PAC will allow him to support and campaign for candidates who supported him in his presidential bid. It will also allow him to contribute to them financially.

“I expect it to be pretty modest in scope,” Romney said. “It’s a pretty standard approach for people who want to be involved in helping other candidates get elected.”

The lights are on and almost everyone has left. The convention is over.

It’s been a busy – but productive -- two days for the Republican Party.

In these two days, Republicans from across the state elected delegates to the state convention, elected state committee members, debated their platform and heard from all the major candidates. They also heard from Mitt Romney and Cal Thomas.

Check back later for more information, photos and video of the Romney visit

Maine Republican caucus winner Mitt Romney will headline the state GOP convention May 2 and 3.

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, has since dropped out of the presidential race and is now stumping for presumptive Republican nominee John McCain.

Former Massachusetts Governor and presidential candidate Mitt Romney will be the keynote speaker at the Maine Republican Party state convention.

Romney won the Maine caucuses in February, but since has dropped out of the race.

The convention is scheduled for May 2-3 at the Augusta Civic Center.

Click here for more on the conventions.

Check out this map of caucus results, broken down by county.