TAMPA, Fla. — Mark Nielsen is good at keeping secrets.
Better than good.
Lawyer-client and confession booth good.
Hearst Connecticut Newspapers has learned that the former state senator, who represented Danbury and now lives in Ridgefield, was part of Mitt Romney’s vetting team for vice president.
Nielsen, 47, declined to comment, saying he was not at liberty to discuss the matter.
When Romney was governor of Massachusetts, Nielsen served as Romney’s legal counsel and chief of staff.
Romney’s selection of Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., the House Budget Committee chairman, is straight out the Robert Ludlum book of subterfuge and dark ops.
Dossiers on pols on the VEEP short list were kept in a safe in Romney’s Boston campaign headquarters and were not allowed to be removed from the premises.
Longtime Romney adviser Beth Myers led the vetting of Ryan, Marco Rubio, Rob Portman and Tim Pawlenty.
An incognito baseball cap-wearing Ryan flew to Hartford instead of Boston to keep reporters off the scent.
Myers’ son drove him to Beantown.
And Nielsen was in on it.