Romney isn’t giving up on Pennsylvania

Amid rumors in Republican circles and on the Internet that the Romney campaign had decided to write off Pennsylvania and its 20 electoral votes as lost to President Barack Obama, the Republican candidate’s surge in polls last week made it clear they felt the Keystone State was in play.

“Pennsylvania is a state which the Romney campaign believes presents a real opportunity for a Romney victory,” Katie Packer Gage, Romney’s deputy national campaign manager, told Human Events. “If President Obama can’t win there, he can’t win at all. So we plan to fight hard there. We have seen evidence in recent days that the Romney/Ryan message is resonating in Pennsylvania and the voters there are moving our way. So we will continue to maintain a strong presence there in the form of victory centers, boots on the ground and an aggressive ‘get out the vote’ program.”

The rumors of a Romney exit from Pennsylvania, however, came in the same week as two polls conducted after the first presidential debate showed the contest a dead heat in the state. The Susquehanna Poll showed that among likely voters in the state, Barack Obama led Mitt Romney by a margin of only 47 to 45 percent, with 3 percent going to Libertarian Gary Johnson. These results were similar to those of a Sienna College Research Institute poll, showing Obama leading Romney 43 to 40 percent among likely voters in Pennsylvania and 17 percent undecided.

Regarding requests from local GOP activists for dates for further visits from Romney and running mate Paul Ryan, Gage said: “As we get closer to Election Day we will evaluate to decide whether to schedule additional visits from the candidates or to devote additional resources there. But for now it remains a definite target for our campaign.”

Party activists throughout the state confirmed that enthusiasm since the Oct. 3 Romney-Obama debate has been at all-time high and that this has translated into a strong infantry of volunteers.

“Pennsylvania is in play — no question about it,” former seven-term Rep. Phil English (R-Pa.) told us. “The debate was certainly helpful but (Romney’s rise) is also because our candidate is offering hope to the middle class-taxpayer here and an understanding of an important local issue — unfair play by China in trade.”

As for what local business leaders in his own Erie County think when they hear the Obama administration’s insistence that the U.S. is on the “road to recovery,” English said: “They think these guys are from Mars.”

English, who has walked precincts since his mother was state co-chairman of Richard Nixon’s re-election campaign in 1972, pointed out that “our victory centers here are packed with volunteers and what is especially heartening is that so many of them are young people who are very concerned about their future. They feel so strongly about it they are working hard as volunteers for Gov. Romney and change.”

The former congressman also said that at fairs in surrounding rural counties, “there is a demand for Romney bumper stickers, buttons, and yardsigns. I hope our state headquarters gets the things the people want and doesn’t spend everything on television.”

Another former Republican House member, Melissa Hart of western Pennsylvania, told a similar story about the growing amount of Republican volunteers and enthusiasm for the GOP ticket in her part of the state.

“We also have a strong Catholics-for-Romney group here,” said Hart, noting that its volunteers are motivated by the pro-life issue and the administration’s controversial mandate to Catholic hospitals regarding contraception.

The former congresswoman added that she had just finished a long drive through western Pennsylvania and “I saw something you don’t see often at election time – home after home with a Romney-Ryan yardsigns out front. Normally, people here have yardsigns for local and countywide candidates, but never for presidential candidates — not to the degree those signs are out there now.”

Based on the signs of activity she described, we asked Hart if she felt Romney was poised to carry Pennsylvania over Obama.

“Not yet,” she replied. “The grassroots work is outstanding, but the Romney campaign needs to have more of a presence on the airwaves. That’s what they need to finish the job.”

It has been 24 years since Pennsylvania gave its electoral votes to a Republican nominee for president. Given the closeness of the latest polls, the momentum could easily shift back to President Obama after the next two debates. But for now, Phil English is clearly on target when he says “Pennsylvania is in play — no question about it.”

I can’t speak directly to the easter counties one by one, but I can say that Romney (like any republican) just needs to come out of Philly without getting completely swamped and if he can do that, he’ll win the state.

It is blindingly clear that Obama will NOT get the support ANYWHERE in the state he did in ‘08. So Romney should come out of Eastern PA with winning being possible.

If you got rid of the Philly region PA would be as reliably RED as any southern state. The problem is Philly absolutely swamps the system.. Philly has 1.5 MILLION people in it alone, not the metro area, that’s just the CITY. It represents over 10% of the overall state population.

The weakness of Obama in PA is one of the reasons I have been saying since day one, the notion that Ohio is in play is LUDICROUS! Ohio and PA are very very similar politically, the difference is Ohio doesn’t have a cancer that is part of the North East Libguard skewing its state. Cinci and Cleveland are NOWHERE near the size of Philly, they are more like a Pittsburgh, and while the urban centers of Ohio will continue to go dem, most likely they won’t carry them by huge margins, and INDIES and LOTS OF DEMOCRATS have kiss this idiot GoodBye.

Obama has never had a chance in ANY rust belt state where a insanely large city cannot swamp the vote. Which is why, Obama will lose, IA, IN, OH and WI. MI and PA are the battleground here, because the support OBama enjoyed in those supercities is way way down, and idies have abandoned him. So IL is probably safe for him thanks to Chicago, and MN is probably safe because frankly the state has always been more socialist than any of its neighbors.

MI and PA are the battleground folks, and both I believe can be won. Will they be? Who knows, but I do know that Romney does have a ground game in PA that has been more effective (at least by their own reports) than McCain ever was. I don’t know what Romney is doing with PA, but I can say I have suddenly seen a LOT more political signs in the last week or two almost all Romney.. though I don’t put huge faith in yard sign as a tell these days, but I haven’t seen really any political ads from either side here lately... That leads me to assume the R/R campaign have conceded the state. I have seen some PACs and things running ads, but even that hasn’t been much.

So if they are fighting for PA I’m glad to hear it, but until I see an ad buy, I am going to remain dubious to the reports.

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