Mitt Romney’s neighbors tell all

>>> okay. imagine the neighbor from hell. imagine somebody who blocks traffic on your street whenever he's home. and imagine that neighbor has secret service protection. and imagine he kind of looks like this. mitt romney thought he picked the perfect neighborhood in the part of southern california that always votes republican. richard nixon used to have a beach house in that area. and romney , who always -- already own a giant lakehouse in new hampshire, thought it would be the perfect location for a giant beach house , but the house romney bought is not giant enough and he wantses to mo s ts to more than triple its size and include a now famous big new garage complete with an elevator for the cars. but after romney loses the presidential election, his secret service detail will disappear and his neighbors will only have to deal with another big, noisy construction project . joining me now are two of mitt romney 's neighbors, the happily married couple randy clark and tom maddox . randy and tom, you have my sympathi sympathies. i can imagine what it's like to have this kind of neighbor. and randy, as i've read, there's a possibility that if his construction is approved that he will be blocking your ocean view ?

>> it's true that we might lose some of our view. his architects met with us early on to talk about the project, but right now the project's on hold and obviously view is always important to coastal neighborhoods in san diego and la jolla , but the most important thing to us is that as a couple who have been together 29 years and who are in a loving, committed relationship and married in 2008 , it's his stance on the freedom to marry that really concerns us the most.

>> tom, if you got a chance -- and i'm assuming you have not had a chance to chaupt your nt up your n ew neighbor, what would you like to say to mitt romney ?

>> oh, gosh, we appreciate the opportunity to do that. actually, i think i'd want to just let him know as a neighbor, we live two doors up from him, that we look at our family no different than he and ann , that randy and i have been together in a committed relationship for 29 years. we had the opportunity to get married four year ago for the same reasons that he and ann did. we love each other, we want to have the opportunity to support and care for each other. we wanted to build a life together. grow old together. just like everyone else does that gets married.

>> and randy, when the architect met with you, didn't he try to get you to sign away any objection to anything that they would build down the street?

>> they did. they gave us a form to sign, and we didn't feel comfortable signing that. and they didn't force us on that issue.

>> and i read in the article about this that mitt romney , when he goes for walks in the neighborhood, has actually told kids on the beach that he's seen smoking pot to stop smoking pot. he looks like he's a candidate for neighborhood watch there. are the neighbors talking about this romney as local cop stuff?

>> well, we do joke about it a bit. we're a pretty close-knit neighborhood. it's a special place. we understand why mitt and ann would want to live there. it's a very nice, quiet neighborhood, and they have a beautiful home, and we do joke about the policing from the romney household.

>> and as far as -- i'm sorry.

>> go ahead, tom.

>> as far as the neighborhood goes, we understand the neighborhood's changed, that nothing's static that every neighborhood changes and evolves over time, but we just want to make sure that he understands that, like randy said, it's a very close knit group of neighbors that we watch out for each other and care for each other.

>> and randy, i assume that you don't have a problem with someone in his position living there, but you'd just like to kind of have the secret service and the romney family understand what a burden it can be for you?

>> that's right. the secret service have been very accommodating. and they're doing their job, we understand. and they have done everything they can to make it as good for us as possible. so we don't have a complaint with the secret service at all.

>> mitt romney 's very reasonable new neighbors, randy clark and tom maddox . i hope you get a chance to meet him very soon. thank you both very much for joining me tonight.

>> thank you very much.

>> you're welcome.

>> good night.

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