SANTA CLARA -- In his first Bay Area public appearance, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney told a Santa Clara audience Monday that he would bring a quarter-century of experience in the business world to the White House if he were elected president.

Romney spoke before a full room of approximately 250 at a town hall-style forum sponsored by a coalition of Silicon Valley chambers of commerce.

"What we need to do is take some of the innovation and technology you're famous for here and start applying it in Washington," Romney said.

Romney, who first ran for public office in 1994 when he tried to defeat Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass. and spent four years as governor of Massachusetts before declining to run for a second term last year, told the crowd he was a businessman and not a career politician.

"I did not expect to be doing this," Romney said.

While Romney did not criticize President George W. Bush by name he did implicitly criticize Bush and Republican congressional leaders for failing to control the federal budget in recent years.

"We have to clean up our own house...because when Republicans act like Democrats America loses," Romney said.

The person who Romney criticized most by name during his talk was Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Romney contrasted the 1994 healthcare reform effort she led during her husband Bill Clinton's first presidential term with the Massachusetts healthcare reform he signed while governor.

"My plan passed...hers didn't," Romney said.

Romney took several questions from the audience. When asked about his stance on immigration he took a tough line, supporting sealing the U.S. border with Mexico and making illegal immigrants already in this country wait in line for legal status. However, he also supports raising the number of H1-B visas for high technology workers and the number of H2-B visas for workers in the tourism and hospitality industries.

Romney is in California all week for public events and private fundraising. He travels to Bakersfield Tuesday for a public appearance at a candy store and will hold another town hall-style forum on Wednesday in Long Beach.