Jeff Beatty, the Republican challenger to U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Boston), said Tuesday that he believes if U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) picked former Gov. Mitt Romney (R) to be his running mate, the GOP would carry Massachusetts in November for the first time since President Ronald Reagan carried it in 1980 and 1984.[img_assist|nid=168|title=Jeff Beatty (R)|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=99|height=180]

Responding to recent speculation that McCain may announce his choice for vice president this week while U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is overseas, Beatty wrote a letter to McCain on Monday urging him to select Romney as his vice presidential candidate.

If McCain did pick Romney, "I believe that we'd be able to deliver Massachusetts and its 12 electoral votes to him," Beatty told PolitickerMA.com. "I think that voters in Massachusetts have had a couple years of [Gov.] Deval Patrick (D-Milton) that have failed to meet expectations."

Beatty said Romney's economic credentials would perfectly complement McCain's foreign policy and military bona fides. "We have two challenges facing our country," Beatty said, "national security and our national economy. A McCain/Romney team, with McCain's foreign policy experience and Romney's economic experience, will meet those two challenges."[img_assist|nid=25|title=Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Gov. Mitt Romney (R-Mass.)|desc=Getty Images|link=none|align=none|width=395|height=247]

For those reasons and Romney's near constant work recently as a surrogate for McCain, the political punditry has speculated that Romney is high on McCain's vice presidential short list. Romney has repeatedly said he is not interested in the position.

"With McCain and Romney on the national ticket and Beatty versus Kerry on the Senate ticket," Beatty said, "there would be a very good possibility McCain will carry Massachusetts."