The addition of Gillespie is not displacing anyone in Romney’s orbit. Ed Gillespie joins Team Romney

Moving to broaden his campaign organization beyond his close-knit cadre of advisers, Mitt Romney is bringing on former Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie as a senior adviser, POLITICO has learned.

Gillespie will be a sort of strategist without portfolio to the likely GOP presidential nominee, offering counsel on planning for the Tampa convention, the candidate’s message and a general election strategy for a campaign that is already moving beyond the primary.


He’ll serve in a volunteer capacity and be based in Washington, but with eventual weekly trips to Romney’s Boston headquarters.

“I am pleased that Ed is joining my team,” Romney said in a statement. “He brings a wealth of experience that will prove invaluable in the political battle that lies ahead. Barack Obama is building a $1 billion campaign war machine, and Ed will play an important role in countering it. He’ll help in bringing Republicans and all Americans together behind my campaign and in communicating our message that America can do better than the chronic high unemployment, slow economic growth, and bitter political divisions that are Barack Obama’s primary accomplishments.”

The addition of Gillespie, a well-regarded operative with deep congressional, campaign and White House experience, comes amid some grumbling from Republican insiders that Romney has an overly insular campaign. The gripe is that Boston’s senior staff, filled with veterans of Romney’s last presidential run, has been too resistant to including outside voices.

Gillespie is not displacing anyone in Romney’s orbit but augmenting a campaign that was purposefully kept lean during the primary. The strategist is close to campaign manager Matt Rhoades and political director Rich Beeson from their days at the RNC and worked with Romney message gurus Stuart Stevens and Russ Schriefer on President George W. Bush’s campaigns.

“It’s the first, hopefully, of many [additions],” said a senior Republican. “This is a sign of their being willing to open up and hear from folks who hadn’t been in his inner circle.”

Romney officials and Gillespie have been in discussions for weeks and the strategist was already offering advice to Rhoades as an informal adviser.

Gillespie has served as a Capitol Hill leadership aide, a national and Virginia GOP chairman, and a senior aide in the George W. Bush White House. He also was a powerhouse lobbyist and founder of the Quinn Gillespie firm but he has not lobbied for five years.

“Ed is both smart and wise,” said former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, Gillespie’s political mentor and onetime boss. “He’s had a tremendous amount of campaign experience, but he’s also had real-life experience. And it shows in his good judgment and level-headedness.”

Gillespie, who stayed out of the GOP primary until acknowledging he voted for Romney in the Virginia primary earlier this month, has detached himself from a trio of pro-Republican outside groups involved in 2012 politics. He has taken a leave of absence or cut ties entirely from American Crossroads, Resurgent Republic and the Republican State Leadership Committee.

While very much a credentialed member of the Republican establishment, Gillespie also has ties to the conservative movement. He worked as a top aide to former House Majority Leader Dick Armey and came up in politics strategizing with movement figures like Paul Weyrich.

He avoided attacking Romney’s primary rivals and the hope in Boston is that Gillespie can play a constructive force in uniting the party and rallying the right around the former Massachusetts governor.