Mitt Romney Is Running for a Job He Probably Won't Hold Long

(Bloomberg) -- Mitt Romney is running for two jobs, and he can't hold both at once. 

Last month, Romney announced he was campaigning for the U.S. Senate in Utah. He's also running for re-election to Marriott International Inc.'s board of directors, according to a filing Friday. The catch is that Senate ethics rules bar members from serving as an officer or board member of any publicly held company.

M.J. Henshaw, a representative for the Romney campaign, declined to comment. A spokeswoman for Marriott declined to comment.

Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee and a former Massachusetts governor, probably doesn't plan on losing either election -- he's been juggling public service and corporate directorship for 15 years. He first served as a Marriott director from 1993 to 2002, leaving after being elected governor. He served again from 2009 to 2011, ran for president, then rejoined the hotel company's board in 2012.

Marriott shareholders vote for directors ahead of the company's annual meeting in May, for one-year terms. If Romney wins both elections, Senate rules would allow him to hold his board seat until he takes office in January.

Romney's connection to Marriott predates his service on the board: His given name, Willard, was in honor of J. Willard Marriott, a friend of Romney's father and founder of the hotel company. In 2017, Romney earned $247,299 for serving as a Marriott director and head of the board's finance committee.

--With assistance from Laura Litvan and Erik Wasson

To contact the reporter on this story: Patrick Clark in New York at pclark55@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Daniel Taub at dtaub@bloomberg.net, Christine Maurus, Peter Jeffrey

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