In 2004, while serving the one term he served as governor of Massachusetts, Willard Romney decided that he would remake the culture of state politics by remaking the composition of the state legislature. He put the prestige of his office, and his personal credibility, which at that time was considerable, behind a slate of 131 Republican legislative candidates. He and the state GOP put together a $3 million direct-mail campaign. It was by far the most vigorous attempt by a Republican governor to reconfigure state politics in anyone's memory.
He failed.
Then he quit.
As recounted in the Boston Globe's exhaustive series in 2007, shortly after his effort augered in — the Republicans wound up losing two seats in the Massachusetts House and one in the state senate — Romney met with the newspaper's editorial board and told the board that he was finished doing anything for any other Republicans ever again.
"From now on," the newspaper reported, "it's me-me-me."