Check Out Mitt Romney in Grafton -- From 1994 -- on GCTV

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore

GRAFTON, Mass. - GCTV will be broadcasting a blast from the past on Feb. 16 -- a 1994 interview with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, videotaped in Grafton at the home of fomer state Sen. Matthew Amorello.

Steve Libuda, producer of Grafton Community Television's GCTV Vaults program, discovered the hidden gem while going through the public access station's aging VHS tape library. Libuda has been painstakingly going through the tape library to digitally encode and archive Grafton's local television programming.

"The content was not listed in our tape inventory, so it was a surprise to have stumbled upon it," Libuda said.

The original interview was recorded for "Grafton Update" by Jim Gallagher and Audrey Egan on Oct. 20, 1994. At the time, Romney was seeking election to the Massachusetts Senate seat then-held by longtime U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy.

Egan met Romney while he was shooting some television spots in a field next to her parents house. Wardrobe changes were done in the home and her mother even ironed Romney's flannel shirt. Romney mentioned that he would be coming to Grafton the following week to visit Amorello, then a state senator and later chairman of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority.

The interviews were videotaped in Grafton at the home of Amorello's mother, Spec. The video features Romney, his wife Ann and Amorello.

Romney ultimately lost the Senate race but served as Massachusetts governor from 2003 to 2007.

Libuda has digitally re-mastered and color-corrected these historic 1994 interviews from the original VHS master tapes and they will air on Feb. 16 and 23 at 9 p.m. on GCTV's Vaults program, Charter Channel 11/Verizon Channel 34.

Comments

brucekc:

You are partly correct It was printed but wasn't reprinted when Mitt started his attack on Matt,
people treated him as if he was in Charge of the project in 1987. Mitt never wanted Matt
in the office in the first place, Matt did a lot of work to Highlight the Assets of the Blackstone
Valley in his service to the State.

Submitted on February 11, 2012 - 3:06pm.

brucekc:

Fred Salvucci was Sec. of Transportation, Then James Karukas took over.
In 1994 Mitt Romney ran for Senate and the Amorello Family opened their
home to him by hosting a Lawn Party for him,I was there, Matt also worked
on the Campaign. He Lost and went to Utah to work on the Winter Olympic
Games... Matt was asked to Run for Congress against Jim Mcgoven after
Mcgoven Out Worked Peter Blute for the Seat and got backing from Unions
Who spent 4 Million Dollars in the last week of the campaign on Flyers Against
Blute.

Matt Lost that election while a fellow Senate Jane Swift was elected LT Gov.
With Gov.Paul Cellucci of Hudson.
After President HW Bush 41 was elected President of the United States.
Paul Cellucci was named US Ambassador to Canada Serving during 911 while
US Airlines landed in Canada while Jets weren't allow to fly.
Lt. Gov. Swift was named Gov. after Cellucci resigned to be Ambassador.
2002

Matt took over as Highway Director then Transportation and Highway got combined
All the Horror Stories you hear of Leaks, Poor Workmanship, Tie wraps holding Lights together,
Loctight on Medal Screws,Cost overuns . Happened while Saluvcci and Karukas were over seeing designs and construction of the Project. By the time The Cement Piece fell in tunnel ( Because of Loctight) The final part of the construction was ending. Romney needed a Scape Goat,
because he was already thinking of running for President.
This is how it happened. Matt Amorello was in the Wrong place at the Wrong time.

Submitted on February 10, 2012 - 2:36pm.

AladdinsLamp:

re; Thanks, you've got a good memory. But that's all the stuff that was printed in the paper, the saga between Matt and Mit goes deeper then that, I think. If you remember, Mit was very publicly and repeatably trash talking about Matt long before the ceiling collapse and then jumped at the opportunity to fire him over the incident. In politics, I've never seen this level of party cannibalization. There's something more here to be unearthed.

Submitted on February 10, 2012 - 6:49pm.

brucekc:

I will never Vote for Mitt Romney because of this.....

In 1987 Thomas Tip O'Neil Speaker of the House US Congress got The Big Dig Project
passed as his last Bill. Before he retired from Congress.

The Governor of Massachusetts was Michael Dukakis in 1887 as he prepared to campaign
for President of the United State. Come to find out after losing in the 1987 election the
State wasn't as financially sound as it was thought and made way for Bill Weld to be
Governor.
I moved to Grafton in 1990 after being brought up in Marlboro and being an active Demoract
since Feb. 19th 9:01 am. Listening to Bill Weld's message I decided to become a Republican
after seeing the Mess Governor Dukakis left behind.

In the same month The GOP Candidate for State Senate dropped out of the Race Matt Amorello
ran a Sticker Campaign to get his name on the Ballot and served with Honor after Getting Elected.

Submitted on February 10, 2012 - 10:35am.

AladdinsLamp:

When the ceiling tile from the big dig fell in Boston, Mitt fired Matt Amerello. Before then, there was also a lot of push and shove between the two, long before the ceiling tile collapse. It would be interesting to know as a Grafton resident, what was really going on between the two active Massachusetts republicans, one which is now running for President.

Submitted on February 10, 2012 - 8:57am.

John B:

Oh goody, video of the French speaking, the pro-choice, government intervention liberal version of Mitt.
I wonder if on tape tape he will say something truly cringe worthy like.
"Your Fired"
"I don't care about poor people"
"Corporations are people"
""I should tell my story. I'm also unemployed"
"I believe in an America where millions of Americans believe in an America that's the America millions of Americans believe in. That's the America I love."

But no Mitt story is not complete without a flip flop.

I don’t speak for the scientific community, of course, but I believe the world’s getting warmer. I can’t prove that, but I believe based on what I read that the world is getting warmer. And number two, I believe that humans contribute to that. I don’t know how much our contribution is to that, because I know that there have been periods of greater heat and warmth in the past but I believe we contribute to that. And so I think it’s important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that may well be significant contributors to the climate change and the global warming that you’re seeing.”
~Mitt Romney, his view about global warming during a campaign stop in New Hampshire, June 2011

⁠”My view is that we don’t know what’s causing climate change on this planet. And the idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to try to reduce CO2 emissions is not the right course for us.”
~Mitt Romney, about his views on global warming during a campaign stop in Pittsburgh, October 28, 2011

Submitted on February 10, 2012 - 5:46am.

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