Romney begins to court moderates, independents
jordan pantoneAs Mitt Romney moves from the bruising Republican primary to the general election campaign, he came face to face on Monday with some of the moderate voters whose support he's will need to defeat President Obama in November. Seated at a picnic table covered with snacks and pitchers of lemonade, Romney met with four married couples who had been invited by a local state senator on behalf of his campaign. The four men and four women, all parents whose party affiliation was not specified, were invited to speak with the like GOP nominee about the issues that are foremost on their minds.Each one expressed concern about the federal budget deficit and the country's slow economic recovery, with particular apprehension about the future facing their children. But in a sign of their independence and moderate leanings, the couples also voiced concern about the possibility of losing government programs like Medicare and Social Security, about cuts in funding for education, and about parts of the tax system that they said seem to unfairly favor the wealthy. Jason Thomas, a Romney supporter and a physician's assistant from Unity Township, told the former Massachusetts governor the he and his wife came from Pennsylvania families of Blue Dog Democrats, a group known for their moderate leanings. He argued that Romney could make inroads with this group if he was willing to take on some of the tax loopholes that favor upper income taxpayers.
jordan retro shoes"A lot of what could potentially turn off those type of Democratic voters are the folks that are upper income that are deducting taxes paid on their second home, their vacation home," Thomas said. "...That's important to them. They don't want to see General Electric paying zero taxes and them being asked to take a cut in their Medicare benefits."Elaine Ditoro, a former school bus driver and mother of three, also voiced concern about the rising costs of Medicare facing her 88-year-old grandmother and 92-year-old grandfather, who recently had a stroke. She called their health care costs "astronomical.""I share the concern," Romney told her, saying it was important to ensure that both Medicare and Social Security are around for those who had paid into the system. He did not go into detail on his proposed changes for both entitlement programs, which include raising the Social Security retirement age and turning Medicare over to the states. Thomas also said he worried about the finances of the area's public schools, citing large deficits created when the economic stimulus money provided by the federal government ran out. "Most of the fat has been trimmed from those budgets," Thomas said as others nodded in agreement. "A lot of those costs are fixed. Districts have to pay the teachers enough to earn a decent wage and pay their benefits. Unfortunately now beyond the fat, there are going to be arts programs that are starting to get cut." Thomas said that he would support a raise in taxes to keep his public schools "top notch." Romney did not address his position on the Department of Education, but in a private fundraiser held in Palm Beach this weekend, he was overheard saying he would "either consolidate with another agency, or perhaps make it a heck of a lot smaller."
adidas outdoor shoesThough he did not offer specifics on which programs he would consider trimming or cutting altogether, Romney did acknowledge to the couples that it would take an increase in revenue to continue funding popular government programs. But he suggested that a Romney administration would achieve this goal, not through tax increases, but rather through job creation. "That, by the way, brings more tax revenue so people could pay for schools and people could pay for the needs that we have," Romney told the group. Arizona voters formerly represented by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords head to the polls Tuesday to choose a successor for the former Democratic lawmaker, who continues her recovery following a January 2010 town hall shooting attack.Giffords has endorsed her former district director Ron Barber as her preferred replacement in the Tucson-area 8th District. Barber is running unopposed in Tuesday's primary--a welcome piece of news to the party, which had been eager to avoid a potentially competitive Democratic race.On the Republican side, four candidates are competing for their party's nomination Tuesday: businessman Jesse Kelly, who strongly challenged Giffords in 2010; state Sen. Frank Antenori; Dave Sitton, a businessman and broadcaster; and Martha McSally, a veteran fighter pilot. Kelly entered the race with a larger degree of name recognition than his competitors, due to his 2010 bid.
discount adidas tennis shoes saleTuesday's GOP winner will compete against Barber June 12. The impact of Tuesday's election, however, extends far beyond 2012.The candidate who wins the June 12 special election will have an added advantage in the separate race to choose a permanent successor to Giffords (the two-year term for that seat begins in January 2013.)One major complication for candidates running is that the 8th District for which candidates are competing Tuesday (and in June) is different than the redrawn and renumbered District 2 in which the candidates competing for a full term will be running this November. Wisconsin's Elections Board voted unanimously Tuesday to allow six Republicans to run as Democrats in the upcoming primary and recall elections. State law doesn't require people to prove they belong to any political party before they can run for office. That was the basis for the Elections Board's decision.But Democrats disagree, saying the candidates falsely represented themselves and therefore filed fraudulent paperwork.Republicans, on the other hand, say the goal was to have a primary in all the races to ensure all the races have their general recall election on June 5th."If my client chose to do so, I would seek a restraining order and an injunction on placing these folks on the ballot, these folks who have announced that they are lying to the GAB and the public about being Democrats for the purpose of protecting the Republican incumbents," Democratic attorney Jeremy Levinson said.
wholesale jordan shoes"I think the real motivation here from the Democratic party is to try to get a general election in the four Senate seats scheduled on the day of the primary in the governor and lieutenant governor race, so the Republican incumbents will have to stand for election on an extremely high Democratic turnout day. That's really the motivation for their challenge today," said GOP attorney Joe Wilson. The recalls target Republican Governor Scott Walker, Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, and three Republican state senators.A fourth senator facing recall, Pam Galloway, resigned citing health issues in her family, so the June 5th election in the 29th Senate District will choose her successor. Mitt Romney has a Latino problem, and a new Pew Research Center poll released Tuesday confirms it. The survey shows President Obama beating Mr. Romney among Latino voters by a whopping 40 points – 67 percent to 27 percent. That’s worse than the 36-point margin by which 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain lost the Latino vote.Two days ago, Romney was overheard telling donors that recent polling of Hispanic voters “spells doom for us.” And he said the GOP needs to woo Hispanics with proposals like a “Republican DREAM Act.”Enter Marco Rubio. The charismatic Cuban-American junior senator from Florida is often touted as a potential running mate for Romney, but even if he’s not on the ticket – and there are reasons to believe he won’t be (starting with youth and inexperience) – Senator Rubio can still help Romney, Republican strategists say
cheap nike shoes onlineSo far, there is no Republican version of the DREAM Act, but Rubio has been working on one. The existing version, backed mostly by Democrats and unable to reach the 60 votes needed to clear the Senate, provides a pathway to citizenship for young undocumented immigrants who complete two years of a four-year college or serve two years in the US military.Rubio says he wants to help these young immigrants – caught in legal limbo through no fault of their own – but cites problems in the existing bill, including the pathway to citizenship. He says that would encourage more illegal immigration.“So here’s what I think we should do,” Rubio told Juan Williams on Fox News recently. “We figure out a way to accommodate them and there are ways to do that.” One way, he suggests, is a “visa process that legalizes them” and, while not carving out a path to citizenship, “wouldn’t prohibit them in the future from accessing the citizenship process.”The DREAM Act is wildly popular among Latino voters, and polls show Republican resistance to it has damaged the party’s image among Latinos. But a tough stance on illegal immigration is a core belief among the Republican base, and Romney has hewed to that position in both of his presidential campaigns.In addition to Rubio, two other Republican senators – Jon Kyl of Arizona and Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas – are working on new DREAM Act legislation, but nothing has been released.We’re continuing to work on it, but there’s a lot of details and we want to get it right, so I don’t have a timeframe yet,” says Rubio spokesman Alex Conant. “Kyl and Hutchison have been working on their own legislation; we’ve been in touch with their offices.”Democrats are already dismissing the anticipated GOP version, calling it “DREAM Act Lite” or “DREAM Act without the dream.”
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