ROMNEY GENERALLY arrives at the State House by 8 a.m. and stays until 7 p.m. More often than not, he leaves to attend a public event. Each morning at 9:30 a.m., members of his senior staff, including press secretary Shawn Feddeman, Chief of Commonwealth Development Douglas Foy, Chief of Commerce and Labor Robert Pozen, Director of Legislative and Intergovernmental Affairs Cindy Gillespie, and Communications Director Eric Fehrnstrom, among others, meet to review the past 24 hours and look forward to the next. If there is a matter of pressing concern, a smaller version of the group meets in Romney’s office. Press events are brief, controlled, and relatively infrequent. Romney will not venture far from the central message of the day. When, for example, President George W. Bush disclosed his new tax-cutting plan, the governor declined to comment, saying he was not going to make it a practice to remark on everything Bush does. "He’s focused like a laser on the issue at hand," says one administration insider. "He doesn’t get distracted by sideshows."

To admirers and critics alike, Romney’s style reflects the corporate sensibility he acquired as the former CEO of Bain Capital. "He’s acting like a turnaround artist," says WRKO talk-show host and former Massport director and Republican congressman Peter Blute, likening Romney to a corporate executive brought in to shore up the stock price of a faltering company. Still, the approach has not won over all observers: "I don’t think he’s acting as much a governor as a CEO," says an unimpressed Mary Anne Marsh, a Democratic strategist.

Roughly four weeks into the administration, Romney’s disciplined ways have served him well. But how long can he keep it up? As long as Finneran lets him, according to one school of thought around Beacon Hill. Romney’s success in getting temporary authority to cut local aid from the budget would not have been possible without Finneran’s cooperation. A Harvard Kennedy School of Government type might theorize that Finneran, moved by Romney’s election, decided to honor the public will by ceding responsibility to the new governor. Such an analysis neglects Finneran’s previous displays of general disdain for the public — such as his refusal to fund the voter-approved Clean Elections Law. Another, perhaps more realistic, interpretation is that Finneran has chosen to implement the guerrilla-warfare precepts put forward by Chairman Mao: when the enemy is strong and you are weak, retreat and let the enemy move forward. Finneran, in other words, is letting Romney march with his troops into the tall grass. Right now, everything seems fine for Romney. But some day down the line, Finneran may begin to fire into the grass and pick off his initiatives one by one. Already, the Speaker is planning to deliver an unprecedented statewide television address in response to Romney’s speech on Wednesday.

Marsh contends that Democrats have decided to stop doing the dirty work for Republican governors. By allowing Romney to slash funding, the Democrats are fixing the situation so that the governor will own the cuts. If the state’s fiscal crisis gets worse, and Romney must call for more reductions and/or tax increases, eventually the public will blame him for the accompanying pain. Already, Section 9C requires him to detail the impact of the cuts. Things will get ugly as Romney trims the budget, and citizens hurt by his reductions will be sure to protest at the State House. In the fall of 2001, when the legislature tried to make preliminary cuts in the budget for fiscal year (FY) 2002, state leaders faced 10 days of loud and messy protests. Thousands of people, from advocates for the mentally retarded to those concerned about cuts in AIDS-prevention funding, came to the State House to express their displeasure. Ultimately, state leaders backed away from $100 million of the most egregious cuts. When Romney starts cutting, he will surely face even more sustained versions of similar protests. Already, there is word that Romney wants to refrain from cutting some local education aid, emergency aid to the elderly, homeless assistance, and other services; yet preserving those programs requires, for example, targeting instead health-and-human-services funding — the same kind of aid that was debated and restored in fall 2001. How Romney handles this will determine whether his success can continue in the long term. Says one administration insider: "If Mitt’s poll numbers go south, he’s got three years to get them back into shape."

That said, the real test of his administration will come not in the results of FY 2003 budget cutting, which is the focus of all the current wrangling, but in the FY 2004 budget, which will be released in February. This is the budget that is likely to contain the broad restructuring of state government that Romney advocated during the 2002 governor’s race. For example, he spoke in favor of combining the Mass Turnpike Authority and the Department of Transportation. He also criticized the way in which the legislature packs the judiciary with patronage hires. This is where Romney will face much more resistance from Finneran and company.

In the current issue of CommonWealth magazine, which contains advice for Romney from former governors Weld, Cellucci, and Michael Dukakis, Weld counsels Romney to forge accommodations with the legislative leadership — even when that means leaving their pet issues alone. "You just may have to leave a few fleas here and there," he says. Basically, Weld seems to be saying, leave the legislators the patronage they need, because doing battle over such matters is not worth the time or energy. That thinking explains why Weld allowed far too many fleas to flourish in Massport, in unions (through, for example, the Quinn Bill), and throughout other bloated executive agencies. But Romney knows that approach can no longer work in Massachusetts. If his first exercise of corner-office leadership succeeds, he will be well on his way to a successful governorship. But if the bad economy continues and the public blames him for unpopular budget cuts, he’ll be a one-term governor.

The new governor seems prepared. If there’s one lesson he’s brought with him from his venture-capital career, it’s this: to earn great rewards, you must take great risks.

Seth Gitell can be reached at sgitell[a]phx.com