No surprise really, Governor Mitt Romney is not seeking reelection, presumably to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.

The 58-year-old businessman, son of former Michigan Gov. George Romney, has spent less than three years in elective office, but in that time the state has closed a $3 billion budget deficit without raising taxes, schools have scored first in national math and science tests and Romney held out until the Legislature gave him a tough new drunken driving law he demanded

Gov. Romney is a Mormon, which may throw an interesting twist into the mix for ‘08, as we’re already seeing commentary like this from the Globe.

Should he run for president, a decision he is expected to announce closer to the 2008 election, Romney will need to break through a pack of more prominent Republicans, including Sen. John McCain of Arizona and former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

There has also been an undercurrent of concern among Christian conservatives, particularly in the vital South, rooted in his Mormon faith.

UPDATE: David Darlington over at ITA thinks he might be able to win over Christian voters.

If Romney decides in favor of a White House run, how will his Mormonism play in Peoria (or, more accurately, Birmingham)? Can a Mormon be the standard-bearer for the Christian Right and the conservative movement against the party’s moderate wing led by John McCain and Rudy Giuliani? My instinct says yes. The political arm of the evangelical movement is more concerned with its candidates having the “right” positions on abortion, gay marriage, public education, and the separation of church and state than they are on whether a person’s personal or theological house is in order. Call me cynical, but I think that explains the movement’s loyalty to some of its morally compromised characters over the years.