After Storm Pause, Romney Shifts to Full Campaign Mode
White House hopeful Mitt Romney is wasting little time returning to full campaign mode after canceling events due to superstorm Sandy, with three rallies Wednesday in key toss-up state Florida.
The Republican nominee challenging President Barack Obama in next week's U.S. election on Tuesday held what his campaign described as a "storm relief event" in Ohio, where Romney took donations of food and supplies to be distributed to victims of the massive storm wreaking havoc on the East Coast.
Then he flies to the nation's largest political battleground, Florida, for three rallies Wednesday that feature party luminaries Senator Marco Rubio and former state governor Jeb Bush, brother of ex-president George W. Bush.
Romney, largely reduced to a spectator role while the president commanded the federal response to Sandy, scrapped several campaign events and halted television advertising and emailings Monday and Tuesday out of "sensitivities" to storm victims, according to his campaign.
The president canceled events Monday through Wednesday in order to manage the federal response to the storm that has already claimed at least 32 lives in the United States and Canada, with experts predicting some $20 billion in damage.
With the race widely seen as a dead heat, Romney will be darting back out on the trail to stump for votes in two crucial districts in Florida -- the cities of Jacksonville in the north and Tampa in the center -- as well as in Coral Gables, near the Democratic stronghold of Miami.
Romney is seen as having a more narrow route than Obama to the 270 electoral votes necessary to win the White House. With some national polls showing Romney slightly ahead, Obama is clinging to slim leads in many of the eight or so swing states where voters will likely determine the outcome of the election.
A RealClearPolitics average of polls gives Romney a 1.3 percentage point edge over the president, while a CNN survey released Monday showed Romney at 50 percent support and Obama at 49 percent.
Source: Agence France Presse
| Copyright © 2012 Naharnet.com. All Rights Reserved. | https://mobile.naharnet.com/stories/en/58865 |