Romney Visit Here Coincides with Rising Poll Numbers

Monday, March 05, 2012

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – As Mitt Romney visits the city on the eve of tomorrow’s critical Republican primary, Democrats are preparing to “welcome” the GOP hopeful, who appears to be close to scoring a big victory here, a new poll shows.

Romney’s scheduled stop this morning at the Brilex Taylor Winfield plant is the first to the Mahoning Valley by GOP presidential hopefuls this campaign season and one of three Ohio stops Romney has scheduled today before tomorrow’s Super Tuesday contests. Ohio, with its delegate count and status as one of the key swing states in the general election, is widely considered Super Tuesday's big prize.

The Ohio Democratic Party is responding to the scheduled visit by calling on area Democrats to meet at the Mahoning County Democratic Party’s headquarters on Mahoning Avenue to organize a protest. The media advisory highlights what are seen as significant liabilities for Romney as he campaigns in the heavily Democratic Mahoning Valley: his opposition to the federal role in preserving General Motors and Chrysler, and his support for State Issue 2, which if approved by voters last fall would have curtailed collective bargaining rights for public employees.

“GM Lordstown would not exist today and the Mahoning Valley would have been devastated,” the Ohio Democratic Party said in its news release. “The truth is, Mitt Romney cares more about the wealthiest Americans and big corporations than he does about middle-class Ohioans. And Mitt Romney fully supported John Kasich's attack on workers' rights in our state.”

New polling data shows Ohio is starting to swing toward Romney from Rick Santorum, who had enjoyed a surge following a set of surprise wins last month and who narrowly lost to Romney last week in Michigan, a state where Romney’s father was a popular governor. This morning Public Policy Polling released the results of its latest poll, which shows Romney narrowly leading in Ohio, with 37% to Santorum’s 36%, followed by Newt Gingrich at 15% and Ron Paul at 11%.

A composite of polls from the past week at the RealClearPolitics web site, not including the new PPP survey, showed Santorum with a 2.7 percentage point edge heading into tomorrow’s Ohio GOP primary. An Ohio poll last month had Santorum up 11 percentage points and a Rasmussen Reports survey a week earlier had him up by 18 percentage points.

Over the weekend, Romney’s campaign raised questions about Santorum’s ability to run a campaign beyond the Super Tuesday contests and “lack of organization.” During a conference call with reporters, surrogates hammered at Santorum’s failure to assemble a full statewide slate of delegates in Ohio, possibly costing him as many as 18 even if he wins the state, as well as his failure to get on the Virginia ballot.

Santorum’s campaign, meanwhile, continued to draw parallels between the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – which critics revile as ObamaCare – and the statewide reforms Romney championed as governor of Massachusetts, which his opponents derisively refer to as RomneyCare.

Romney's town hall here is scheduled to begin shortly after noon. Earlier today the GOP front-runner is scheduled to tour Gregory Industries in Canton. After departing Youngstown, Romney will travel to Zanesville where his campaign will hold a rally this evening.

Meantime, the Ohio Democratic Party has scheduled its official "response" news conference for 2 p.m. at Local 1714 of the United Auto Workers hall on Salt Springs Road in Warren. The chairman of the Mahoning County Democratic Party, David Betras, will join the president of Local 1714, Dave Green, "to highlight out-of-touch Mitt Romney's opposition to the auto rescue," states the party's media advisory.