Romney’s secret VP search: How he kept it quiet

One thing we’ve learned about Mitt Romney over the last few months: The man can keep a secret.

When Wisconsin Rep. Paul D. Ryan joins Romney, as is expected, in front of the USS Wisconsin in Norfolk, Va., as his running mate, a development first reported by NBC News, the only hint that the Romney campaign will have given about his choice was the name of that retired battleship, which will serve as the backdrop for the announcement.

Since the spring when Romney cinched the Republican nomination, he kept the VP selection process a tightly guarded secret between himself and Beth Myers, one of his most trusted aides, who served as his campaign manager in 2008 and his chief of staff during the four years he was governor of Massachusetts.

Photos: Paul Ryan announced as Romney’s running mate

The two spoke every other day by phone about the potential VP candidates, and Romney spent time with many of them on his bus tours, at fundraisers and on telephone calls. Journalists wrote about the budding chemistry between Ryan and Romney when they campaigned together in Wisconsin, but Romney had developed close friendships with other contenders, most notably former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

In interviews and news conferences over the last year, Romney offered no clues but repeatedly said that, above all, he was looking for a running mate whose credentials for the top job would be unquestioned.

“I can tell you that the person I choose — you will look at and say, ‘Well, that’s a person who could be president if that were necessary.’ And that for me is the most important single criteria,” Romney told an audience in Grand Junction, Colo., at a town-hall-style meeting in early July.

During an appearance on NBC’s “Tonight Show” with Jay Leno in late March, while playing a word association game with the host, Romney described Ryan as “creative” but also praised other contenders such as Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. During an interview this week with NBC, he edged a little closer to a hint by saying that Americans should expect his pick to be someone with “a vision for the country, that adds something to the political discourse about the direction of the country.”

With the polls showing Romney virtually tied with President Obama in many crucial swing states, Romney’s campaign advisors saw no reason to take a major risk with their selection as John McCain did by picking the largely unknown Sarah Palin four years ago. Even Romney signaled that he was looking for a solid, steady running mate and was unlikely to surprise voters with his choice — which was why Pawlenty, Ryan and Ohio Sen. Rob Portman were all at the top of the list.

The conservative Wall Street Journal editorial page tried to give the campaign a little push this week by forcefully advocating that Romney choose Ryan, calling him part of a “new generation of reformers” and noting that “against the advice of every Beltway bedwetter, he has put entitlement reform at the center of the public agenda – before it becomes a crisis that requires savage cuts.”

But by then, the selection process was well on course. Over many months, Myers has conducted an extensive vetting process that was fitting of the data-driven Republican presidential candidate, who was heavily involved and has reviewed many of the files himself.

Though the campaign invited many of the potential VP candidates, including Ryan, to a weekend with top donors in Park City, Utah — that was viewed as a bit of a tryout by some of the people who attended — Romney made it clear early on that he was not going to force the candidates under consideration to show their prowess through fundraising (a role Romney felt the McCain campaign had forced him into when he was under consideration for vice president in 2008).

Photos: Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan

For the Romney campaign, the 2008 selection of Palin served as the ultimate cautionary tale. McCain, who was soon to become the Republican presidential nominee, needed a surprise pick to shake up the race and halt Obama’s momentum.

Because of the cursory vetting of Palin, McCain’s aides grappled with an avalanche of surprises: from Palin’s lack of knowledge of basic American history and foreign affairs, to her daughter’s teen pregnancy, to her uneven record as a mayor and governor in Alaska.

Palin’s shadow created longer odds this year for many of the Republican Party’s brightest stars, particularly women. Among the roughly 20 names under consideration at headquarters in Boston were New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, a popular, hard-working lawmaker who has a warm friendship with the Romneys, as well as Rubio, a tea party darling with a compelling personal narrative as the son of Cuban immigrants.

There were few leaks within the tightly controlled Romney apparatus during the selection process. One exception was when Romney personally denied an ABC report that Rubio was not being vetted as a presidential candidate. In a nod to Rubio’s enormous popularity within the base, Romney said the report was wrong and that Rubio was being “thoroughly vetted.”

But many within Romney’s orbit feared the limited stints of Ayotte and Rubio in Washington would raise experience questions that could drive the campaign off-track.

Though Ryan, at 42, is much younger than Romney, he is serving his seventh term in Congress and has shown his leadership potential as chairman of the House Budget Committee. Given his tenure in Washington and his prominent leadership position in the Republican Party, those sorts of Palin-esque surprises seem unlikely.

Long before Romney made his final selection, his aides began assembling a team that would be ready to staff his running mate from the moment of the announcement.

Heading that vice presidential operations team is Randy Bumps, a former state representative in Maine who has worked as the regional political director of the Republican National Committee and the political director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Working with Bumps will be Kevin Sheridan, a former spokesman and director of regional media for the Republican National Committee. Sheridan will head the vice presidential communications team.

maeve.reston@latimes.com

Twitter: @maevereston