AFP/Getty Images(MESA, Ariz.) -- The first words out of Mitt Romney's mouth at Wednesday night's Republican debate were a planned attack on Rick Santorum.
Time and time again on stage, Romney turned to his right to label Santorum a spender of government money who favored earmarks, not the conservative he has proclaimed himself to be throughout his campaign.
Romney's premeditated talking-point barrage reflected the stakes of the GOP primary. Once considered the inevitable nominee, Romney is facing the prospect of a troubled campaign should he lose a primary Tuesday in either Michigan or Arizona.
At one point during the debate that aired on CNN, Romney sought to use one of his biggest albatrosses with conservatives, his record on health care, against Santorum by accusing the resurgent candidate of being responsible for "ObamaCare" by endorsing a candidate who became a Democrat, Arlen Specter.
"So don't look at me," said Romney, whose health record in Massachusetts has been called a model for the federal program signed by President Obama. "Take a look in the mirror."
Santorum's defense was that he backed Specter because the Republican-turned-Democrat vowed to support President Bush's judicial nominees.
Romney and Santorum also volleyed insults during a tense exchange over earmarks.
It began as Santorum argued that while he was a senator he supported "good earmarks," such as essential military weapons, but that not all spending projects are appropriate.
However, he said, "as president, I would oppose earmarks."
"I didn't follow all of that," Romney countered.
Romney then defended his role as the head of the Olympics, in which he asked the federal government for money to cover transportation and security costs.
Romney conceded that he agreed with Santorum over giving the president line-item veto powers, but he insisted that they differed on their approaches to government spending.
"While I was fighting to save the Olympics, you were fighting to save the bridge to nowhere," Romney jabbed, referring to the infamous earmark that came to symbolize wasteful spending.
Ticking off some highlights from Santorum's record as a senator, Romney told the crowd in Arizona that the Pennsylvanian raised the debt ceiling "five different times" without insisting on cuts in spending to balance it, funded Planned Parenthood and voted to expand the Education Department.
"Senator, during your term in Congress, the years you've been there, government has doubled in size," Romney said. "In my view, we should not raise the debt ceiling again until we get compensating cuts in spending."
Santorum, sitting in the spotlight on the stage as the nominal front-runner, fought back by accusing Romney of saying he would also vote to raise the debt ceiling.
However, Santorum added, he regretted some of his own votes, including one in favor of the much-maligned No Child Left Behind education bill. He also accused Romney of wanting to raise taxes -- at least on the top one percent of Americans.
"I'm not going to adopt that rhetoric," Santorum said. "I'm going to represent 100 percent of Americans. We're not raising taxes on anybody."
Later, as he elaborated on his vote to approve of No Child Left Behind, some in attendance booed Santorum as he said his vote was "against the principles I believed," but that "when you're part of a team, sometimes you take one for the team for the leader, and I made a mistake."
"You know, politics is a team sport, folks," Santorum said, as if addressing his dissenters in the audience, risking that he might be perceived as a Washington insider. "I admit the mistake, and I will not make that mistake again."
Ron Paul jumped at the chance to deem Santorum a creature of Washington.
"He has to go along to get along, and that's the way the team plays," Paul said. "I don't accept that form of government....I think the obligation of all of us should be the oath of office....It shouldn't be the oath to the party."
Though the debate also featured a handful of questions about social issues, the candidates were more in agreement as they derided the Obama administration for what they said were attacks on religion, and they called for cultural matters to be addressed.
Santorum, who has drawn scrutiny for some of his comments about religion, birth control and women serving in the military, rose to a crescendo as he said that, as president, he would bring attention to the growing number of babies being born out of wedlock.
He suggested that issue is "bigger" than fixing the economy.
"We can't have limited government, lower taxes...cut spending," Santorum said. "No, everything's not going to be fine. There are bigger problems at stake in America. And someone's got to go out there. I will."
Romney, who said he agreed with Santorum over the need to address children born to unmarried parents, denied accusations that he forced Catholic hospitals to give morning-after pills to rape victims. He said as governor of Massachusetts, he made sure that the state's health care law included "provisions that make sure that something of that nature does not occur."
Along with each of the other candidates, Santorum was asked to again address the Pentagon's initiative to give women bigger roles in combat. Santorum, who drew criticism from liberals after saying that women fighting alongside men would raise "emotions," said that he still has "those concerns."
Romney, meanwhile, said that "women have the capacity to serve in our military" in most positions.
Romney did challenge Santorum on contraception, turning to the ex-senator as he recalled that he "saw a YouTube clip" of Santorum explaining why he voted for the Title X "family planning" program.
"You said this in a positive light," Romney charged.
Santorum was booed as he conceded that he did vote for bills including that provision, but he said he didn't support it.
"I've never supported it and, on an individual basis, voted against it," Santorum said.
But in 2006, Santorum said, he supported birth control because "it is not the taking of human life," and people should have the choice to "do whatever you want to do."
Ron Paul, who has made moves that helped Romney in recent days, joined the fight against Santorum, calling him a "fake" in the spirit of the Texas congressman's latest campaign ad portraying Santorum negatively.
"The record is so bad," Paul said.
Santorum rebutted Paul's criticism by citing a measure by The Weekly Standard, a conservative publication, that said he was the most fiscally conservative senator during the 12 years that he served.
Romney also faced a question about his conservative bona fides, an issue that he has confronted repeatedly during the campaign. As he addressed a gathering of conservative activists in Washington this month, Romney claimed he was "severely conservative," a label that some have questioned -- including Wednesday night's moderator, CNN's John King.
"Severe, strict," Romney said. "I was, without question, a conservative governor of my state."
Newt Gingrich, who got fewer questions than at previous debates, was an ally of Santorum's only rarely. As the two lead candidates debated earmarks, the former House speaker said that Romney was correct to ask the government for money to support the Olympics -- but that he was wrong to then criticize Santorum for being involved in the earmark process.
Romney, Gingrich said, shouldn't "claim that what you got wasn't what they got because what you got was right and what they got was wrong."
The debate was mostly serious, characterized by Romney and Santorum bickering in center stage over their conservative credentials. But in a rare moment of light questioning, the candidates were asked to describe themselves in one word.
Mark Wilson/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Seven of Sarah Palin’s closest confidantes have yet to watch the HBO film Game Change, which portrays her 2008 vice presidential bid, but they said they have already seen enough.
On a conference call with reporters Wednesday, these current and former advisers to Palin unleashed a torrent of criticism at the movie, which will premiere on Mar. 10.
Palin’s former aide Jason Recher dismissed it as a “false narrative cobbled together by a group of people who simply weren’t there."
Randy Scheunemann, who tutored Palin on foreign policy matters during the campaign, said, “To call this movie fiction gives fiction a bad name.”
“Looking at the trailers alone, get’s my blood boiling,” Palin’s former spokeswoman Meg Stapleton noted.
The three were joined by the treasurer of Palin’s political action committee, Tim Crawford, Palin’s former lawyer Tom Van Flein, and aides Doug McMarlin and Andy Davis. Crawford, Recher, McMarlin and Davis all currently have paid consulting contracts with Sarah PAC.
None of the seven have screened the film, but based on what they have seen in a two-minute trailer and what they know of the book, Game Change, authored by journalists Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, each said the movie presents an inaccurate portrait of Palin.
They took particular umbrage with Steve Schmidt, an adviser to Sen. John McCain who served as one of Palin’s top handlers during the 2008 race and who has emerged as a public critic of former Alaska governor since then.
“He is abusive, he is abrasive, he is nothing short of a world-class bully,” Stapleton said, adding that he is “infamous for lining up and destroying.”
Pointing the finger of blame, Stapleton said the news media has an “insatiable desire to beat and beat and beat her” and added that a lesser person “would have hanged himself by now.”
Schmidt is played in the movie by actor Woody Harrelson, Palin by Julianne Moore and McCain by Ed Harris.
Stapleton savaged a clip in the movie trailer depicting Palin lying in a bathrobe in the fetal position surrounded by notecards. “That’s sinful,” she said.
Along with Schmidt, the seven supporters also aimed their fire at Nicolle Wallace, who served as a senior adviser to Palin in 2008, but has since turned on her.
“Steve and Nicolle are gifted communicators, but in the game of spin they’ll say anything,” said Davis, the political director for Sarah PAC.
Palin did not participate in the conference call, but in a recent Fox News interview she said she was “not concerned about an HBO movie based on a false narrative when there are so many other things to be concerned about.”
Most of the aides said they had not been contacted by the filmmakers or the authors of the book on which it is based.
“If the book was very misleading,” Scheunemann said, “the movie is going to be far worse.”
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(MESA, Ariz.) -- See live coverage and commentary from ABC News and Yahoo of the Republican presidential debate in Mesa, Ariz.
iStockphoto/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- A collection of House Democrats are protesting silently against Proposition 8 Wednesday, participating in a photo shoot to draw attention to California’s state law banning same-sex marriage.
Wednesday the NOH8 campaign released images of 10 members of the House of Representatives from its “NOH8 on the Hill” photo shoot; the campaign opposes California’s Proposition 8, which bans same-sex marriage, and supports the LGBT community with its stand against bullying and discrimination.
Four Democratic lawmakers from California -- Reps. Judy Chu, Lynn Woolsey, Barbara Lee and Jackie Speier -- joined Dennis Kucinich (Ohio), William Keating (Mass.), Earl Blumenauer (Ore.), Niki Tsongas (Mass.), Jared Polis (Colo.) and Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D.C.) in the cause.
“Equality before the law is an American value articulated in our Constitution and it’s at the heart of the NOH8 Campaign,” Polis, one of a handful of openly homosexual members of Congress, said. “With a focus on our nation’s value of freedom and an unflagging insistence on equality for all, we can look forward to a time when equal rights for all is a given.”
Earlier this month, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s ruling that California’s ban on same-sex marriage violates both the due process and equal protection clauses of the Constitution. That ruling, however, is pending further appeal.
The photo shoot, which occurred on Capitol Hill on Feb. 15, was open to any members of Congress willing to take a stand against the controversial law, although no Congressional Republicans participated.
Each member issued a statement explaining why they had the NOH8 logo applied to their face, along with a piece of silver duct tape covering up their mouths.
“Gay and lesbian Americans are part of the fabric that makes this country strong,” Blumenauer said. “The notion that we could ask these men and women to do everything from paying taxes to serving our country in uniform while denying them the right to marry is offensive to everything I believe in as a public servant. I won’t stop working for equal rights in Congress until they have been extended to every American.”
“These pictures speak volumes about the will of the American people to be treated the same, regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation,” Chu stated.
Proposition 8 is the ballot initiative passed in 2008 to amend the California constitution and ban same-sex marriage. About 18,000 same-sex couples had already obtained marriage licenses in the state before voters approved the law.
Jay LaPrete/Getty Images(TUCSON, Ariz.) -- Campaigning at a Tea Party rally Wednesday, Rick Santorum zeroed in on immigration in this southern Arizona city as he promised to “secure the southern border” and make illegal immigration a focal point of his presidency.
“You have my pledge that we will secure this border. We will deal with the issue of the drug violence and the cartels, we will work with the Mexican government to make sure that we … have relationships there that can help strengthen their economy, deal with the national security threats to our country at the border and secure the border so that people in Arizona can live in peace and prosperity just like every other state in the county,” said Santorum.
Unlike his campaign stops Tuesday in Phoenix, where he mentioned immigration only once at one event, Santorum focused on the issue here in Tucson, which is 70 miles from the Mexican border, eliciting cheers from the crowd as he told the story of how his grandfather left his family in Italy to come to the United States legally.
“I share that, that concern that many people have. Well, what are we going to do with all these people in America?” Santorum said to a crowd of about 200 at a Shriner’s Hall. “Well, I look at it from the standpoint of my grandfather. My grandfather came to this country, he came in 1925. He came by himself. He left his family behind, his young children, his wife, he left them after having served in World War I. But came to America, sacrificed five years of his life … until he was able to refill the requirements and bring the rest of the family over.”
Santorum said securing the border wasn’t “hostile, this is just who we are.”
There was increased security at the Tucson rally with bag checks and organizers telling an overflow crowd of about 50 people that the candidate would not be shaking hands outside due to security reasons. At the end of the rally, Santorum urged the candidates who spoke before him to “take this district back,” but he did not mention former Democratic Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in Tucson last year.
Neither did he mention the foreclosure crisis rocking this state, and he kept most of his hits on President Obama rather than his rivals, telling an enthusiastic and responsive audience who repeatedly shouted out disparaging comments about Obama, “We see a president who is systematically trying to crush the traditional Judeo-Christian principles in this country.”
Santorum again defended the controversial Satan comments that popped up on the campaign trail Tuesday when audio was released of the former Pennsylvania senator saying Satan was attacking U.S. government and religious institutions. He said Obama was “making the world a much more dangerous place,” and there were “forces of evil” at work in this country and around the world.
“You hear a lot of talk from me, as I mentioned this earlier, about the threats that we have around this world, and we do have serious threats that this president is uniformly making worse,” Santorum said. “He’s making the world a much more dangerous place as he continues to pull America back and allow those who seek to do harm to freedom, those who seek to oppress, yes, evil forces around the world. As Ronald Reagan was courageous enough to go out and speak about the forces of evil, not just around the world by the way but in this country, go read the speech. He went out and identified clearly why, because America stands for something, we stand for goodness we stand for freedom we stand for the dignity of every human person, that is who we are, that is why we’re that shining city on the hill that the rest of the world looks to. … And yet our president refuses to call evil evil, refuses to even name it, refuses to confront it, tries to appease and cajole it in an effort to reduce America’s commitments around the world.”
Santorum called his rivals “Johnny-come-latelys to the conservative cause” and urged the audience to vote for him on Tuesday.
“That’s the decision you have to make here in Arizona,” Santorum said. “Who do you trust? Who’s authentic? Who’s believable? Is it the guy reading from the teleprompter or the guy out here on a high-wire line telling you what’s in his heart, and what’s in his gut?”
“Getting to that peace and prosperity, we need to do two things to turn this country around economically,” Santorum said. “First, we have to get the government off the backs of the American people and American businesses. I’ve put forward a plan that does both, grow this economy by changing the tax code. I just saw today that Gov. Romney announced that he was going to be lowering the tax rates to well, the tax rate I proposed. Welcome to the party, governor. Great to have you along.”
Win McNamee/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- While it aired on television only in the state of Michigan, Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra’s racially charged Super Bowl ad soon became the perceived slur heard round the country.
Now, after a deluge of criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike, the Hoekstra campaign has scrubbed the ad from the Internet, wiping it from his Facebook page, YouTube channel and campaign website.
But Hoekstra has yet to be anything but supportive of his ad, which features an Asian woman riding through rice paddies and thanking Hoekstra’s Senate rival in broken English for outsourcing U.S. jobs to China.
The ad accuses Hoekstra’s Senate election rival, Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., of supporting deficit spending in Congress and dubs her “Debbie Spend-It-Now.”
The ad’s actress, Lisa Chan, a recent University of California at Berkeley graduate, said in a Facebook post that she feels “horrible about my participation” in the ad, which was “absolutely a mistake.”
Hoekstra was unmoved.
“It’s not a stereotype at all,” he told Fox’s Megyn Kelly when asked a day after the Super Bowl whether the actress’ faked broken dialect was an unfair stereotype. "Through the creative [design of the ad] this is a young woman in China who’s speaking English. That’s quite an achievement."
A statement saying “this video has been removed by the user” now appears on Hoekstra’s YouTube page where the clip of this Fox interview used to be. Hoekstra’s campaign declined to comment on removing the ad.
The super PAC American Values, which is launching a campaign against Hoekstra over his controversial ad, has claimed partial credit for Hoekstra’s attempts to wipe the ad from the Web.
“It was less than 72 hours after we put this ad up and started sending it out to national press that he actually started scrubbing the ad from the internet,” said Jesse Tangkhpanya, the national political director at American Values. “He basically is trying to walk away from this issue but we are not letting go.”
The super PAC released an ad Friday condemning Hoekstra’s “racially tinged ad.”
“Congressman Pete Hoekstra, shame on you,” says the ad’s narrator after clips of Hoekstra’s Super Bowl ad.
“I can tell you right now that we are not going to stop until he actually apologizes,” Tangkhpanya said. “We are going to keep building up the pressure.”
Stockbyte/Thinkstock(RICHMOND, Va.) -- Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, a potential GOP vice presidential candidate, has pulled his support for a controversial state bill that would require women seeking an abortion in early stages of their pregnancies to undergo an invasive type of ultrasound.
With the governor’s change of position, the Virginia House quickly tweaked a new version of the bill and was passed.
McDonnell, who is widely expected to be considered as a potential running mate for the Republican ticket in 2012, still supports a requirement that pregnant women seeking an abortion undergo an ultrasound.
The governor issued a written statement Wednesday that he no longer believes an invasive transvaginal ultrasound is necessary for women in early stages of pregnancy who want to obtain an abortion.
“It is apparent that several amendments to the proposed legislation are needed to address various medical and legal issues which have arisen,” he said in the statement.
McDonnell opened his statement switching positions on the ultrasound bill by arguing that he opposes abortion rights.
“I am pro-life. I believe deeply in the sanctity of innocent human life and believe governments have a duty to protect human life. The more our society embraces a culture of life for all people, the better country we will have,” he said, pointing out he has supported legislation in Virginia that requires women to undergo state counseling and wait 24 hours before obtaining an abortion.
The new proposal would make the rules even stricter, requiring a woman to obtain an ultrasound as well.
“It is clear that in the majority of cases, a routine external, trans-abdominal ultrasound is sufficient to meet the bills stated purpose, that is, to determine gestational age. I have come to understand that the medical practice and standard of care currently guide physicians to use other procedures to find the gestational age of the child, when abdominal ultrasounds cannot do so,” he said.
“Mandating an invasive procedure in order to give informed consent is not a proper role for the state. No person should be directed to undergo an invasive procedure by the state, without their consent, as a precondition to another medical procedure,” the statement said.
Rejecting the vaginal ultrasound requirement for some women is a complete turnaround for McDonnell. On Friday his spokesman told ABC News the governor “has said he will sign this legislation if it is passed by the General Assembly.”
The bill has sparked outrage among abortion rights activists. Opponents of the measure were angry about the invasiveness of the requirement and also that women would, many times, have to pay for the procedure.
(WASHINGTON) -- With the Republican presidential nomination still up for grabs after nearly two months of voting, the four remaining candidates will gather for another debate Wednesday night, this time in Arizona.
Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum come into the debate in Mesa with the most at stake. The two rivals have been close in polls in the next two states to vote Tuesday -- Arizona and Michigan -- although Romney has beefed up his lead in the former. For Romney, some say it's a make-or-break week: Losses in either state -- but especially his native state of Michigan -- could send shockwaves through the party and position Santorum as the new front-runner heading into Super Tuesday in early March.
The last time Romney entered a debate needing to deliver a strong performance, he did just that. In Florida late last month, Romney outdueled both Santorum and Newt Gingrich en route to a victory in the Sunshine State’s Jan. 31 primary. The next week Romney triumphed in the Nevada caucuses, his third win in the first five states to vote, but since then what once appeared an inevitable march to the nomination for Romney hit some major roadblocks.
In 2008, Romney won Minnesota, Colorado and Missouri, the three states that voted after Nevada, but this year Santorum swept all three, snatching the momentum from Romney and raising more questions about the former Massachusetts governor’s ability to excite his party’s already skeptical base.
For Santorum, he will bring that momentum into the debate, as well as the confidence that comes from recent polls showing him locked in a tight race with Romney in Arizona and Michigan. The former Pennsylvania senator, though, is likely to face questions at the CNN debate about a speech he gave in 2008 at Ave Maria University in Florida when he said Satan is targeting the United States.
Asked about the comments Tuesday evening after an event in Phoenix, Santorum said, “these are questions that are not relevant to what is being discussed in America today.”
In a state where around 18 percent of eligible voters are Latino, according to the Pew Hispanic Center, the candidates are also likely to face questions about immigration at the Arizona debate. In 2010, the state’s Republican Gov. Jan Brewer enacted a strict new law that gave police the power to inquire about a person's immigration status if they're detained or arrested. In the ensuing governor’s race, seen as a referendum on the law, 71 percent of Latinos backed Brewer’s Democratic opponent Terry Goddard, but Brewer still emerged victorious.
Romney has outlined an immigration policy that relies on “self-deportation,” a policy predicated on the notion that illegal immigrants, without the ability to find employment, will voluntarily leave the country. Romney has also stated that as president he would veto the DREAM Act, the Democrats’ bill to provide a path to citizenship for some children of undocumented immigrants who attend college or serve in the military. Romney's stance has alienated some Latinos.
The latest polls out of Arizona show Romney establishing a comfortable lead there: a new NBC/Marist poll had Romney up 43 percent to 27 percent over Santorum. But Michigan was closer, with the poll revealing a slim 37 percent to 35 percent lead for Romney. Neither Gingrich nor Ron Paul is making a push to win in Arizona or Michigan. A new Quinnipiac poll, however, put Santorum ahead of Romney nationally: 35 percent to 26 percent. But one of the reasons cited by some pundits as an explanation for the “bubble primary” -- candidates surging and plunging in rapid succession -- is the huge number of debates and the effect each one has on voters.
That makes Wednesday night’s duel in Mesa that much more important, especially with so much at stake next week. In addition, Wednesday night’s match-up is the final debate before a flurry of state votes on Super Tuesday. CNN cancelled a March 1 debate in Georgia after Romney and Paul both announced they would not attend it.
The next debate is set for March 19 in Portland, Ore.
Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call(PHOENIX) -- Rick Santorum is getting some help from his friends in his battle for Michigan.
His superPAC is pouring $600,000 into Mitt Romney’s home state and, unlike its previous television ad there, this one is negative. The spot, titled “Vital Decisions,” compares Romney to President Obama
“How can Mitt Romney beat Barack Obama when on the vital decisions they’re not much different?” the announcer says over photographs of Romney and Obama. “Like Obama, Romney drastically increased spending. Increased state taxes and fees. Even worse, RomneyCare is the blueprint for ObamaCare.” The ad then shows photos of Santorum campaigning and with his family and touts Santorum as a “principled leader” with a “bold” jobs plan.
This is the second ad buy for the “Red, White, and Blue Fund” making the total the group has spent in the state $1.3 million.
Wednesday, an NBC/Marist Michigan poll showed Romney with 37 percent and Santorum 35 percent support. A new Quinnipiac poll also out Wednesday showed Santorum over Romney nationally 35 percent to 26 percent.
The pro-Romney superPAC “Restore Our Future” has spent about $6 million in both Arizona and Michigan, almost all on negative ads attacking Santorum and Newt Gingrich.
On Thursday the conservative group, the Susan B. Anthony List will launch a six-day bus tour in Michigan supporting Santorum, with representatives of several other conservative groups and local leaders campaigning for him throughout the state.
The former Pennsylvania senator is campaigning in Arizona Wednesday and will face off against his opponents later in the CNN debate in Mesa. He’s expected to head back to Michigan by the end of the week. Both states vote on Feb. 28.
Bill Pugliano/Getty Images(CHANDLER, Ariz.) – Just hours before he meets his main rival for the 20th -- and likely final -- debate of the primary season, Mitt Romney didn’t even mention former Sen. Rick Santorum during a speech Wednesday morning. Instead, Romney doubled down on his economic background, offering new details on his tax plan while attacking President Obama’s policies.
“I’m going to lower rates across the board for all Americans by 20 percent,” Romney said.
“With regards to our tax policy, our growth, with regards to our tax policy, there are a couple things I’d like to announce to you today,” said Romney, speaking in a gymnasium at the Tri-City Christian Academy. “And in order to limit any impact on the deficit -- ‘cause I don’t want to add to the deficit -- and also in order to make sure that we continue to have progressivity as we’ve had in the past in our code, I’m going to limit the deductions and exemptions, particularly for high-income folks.”
Romney said his plan to limit mortgage interest and charitable contributions deductions would not impact middle-income families who critics say will suffer if President Obama gets tax increases he's seeking. Instead, Gov. Romney noted he wants to, “make sure the top 1 percent keeps paying the current share they’re paying or more.”
Romney tonight will debate fellow republican candidates, including Santorum, who over the past week has defined himself as Romney’s chief competitor. But during Wednesday morning’s rally, Santorum’s name wasn’t mentioned once, nor were the jabs at “Washington insiders” that have been a part of Romney’s stump speech all week.
Instead, it was Romney’s tax plan -- and its contrast to Obama’s plan -- that filled the 15-minute speech.
“The President would take us in one direction, I’ll take us in a different one,” said Romney. “His plan in regards to jobs is very simple. He wants to raise taxes. That will kill jobs in this country.”
“He’s proposing today a corporate tax plan which I understand sounds like he’s lowering taxes but he’s raising taxes -- raises taxes on businesses by hundreds of billions of dollars,” said Romney. “He’s raising taxes on these companies that flow through -- that pay taxes on individual rates. Raising taxes will kill jobs. My plan will create jobs. That’s the difference between the two of us.”
Scott Olson/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) – Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney have battled essentially to parity in basic popularity, far outpacing Newt Gingrich, who’s faded to a new low in the 2012 election cycle, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll. But Santorum’s arc flattened this week, underscoring a potentially difficult battle ahead.
Within their party, 65 percent of Republicans express a favorable opinion of Romney overall, and about as many, 61 percent, hold a positive view of Santorum, levels that suggest many party regulars ultimately would accept either candidate as their nominee.
Gingrich dropped to 45 percent favorability within the GOP in this ABC News/Washington Post poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates. That’s down by 10 points in the past month and by 15 points from Gingrich’s best, in November and December.
Still Santorum, after advancing earlier this month, saw his ratings flatten overall this week, with a 10-point increase in unfavorable views among Americans who describe themselves as “very” conservative. It’s still among his best groups, though, and one in which he continues to lead Romney.
The Republican contenders meet Wednesday night for their 20th debate, their first since Jan. 26, a face-off that preceded Santorum’s surge and Gingrich’s fade. It was their last debate before the Arizona and Michigan primaries next Tuesday.
METHODOLOGY – This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by landline and cell phone Feb. 15-19, 2012, among a random national sample of 1,012 adults. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 points. The survey was produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates of New York, N.Y., with sampling, data collection and tabulation by SSRS/Social Science Research Solutions of Media, Pa.
JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- President Obama’s re-election campaign on Wednesday designated 35 state, local and community leaders as national co-chairs, or “ambassadors” for the president, who will play a high-profile role in defending his record and mobilizing voters for November.
The list includes current and former Democratic members of Congress, governors, and mayors, as well as business and labor leaders, members of clergy and a few local campaign organizers, a nod to the value Obama places on his grassroots volunteers.
Former White House chiefs of staff Bill Daley and Rahm Emanuel will play key roles. Actor Kalpen Modi is expected to lead outreach to younger voters, while actress Eva Longoria will spearhead efforts to reach women and Hispanics.
All are “proud of the president’s record and leadership,” the campaign said in a statement.
Also notable are the names not on the list as Obama ambassadors.
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., played a key role for Obama in 2008 but faces a fierce re-election battle in a red state.
Neither former President Bill Clinton nor Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are listed. Secretary Clinton cannot participate in political activity because of her role as the nation’s chief diplomat.
And there are no big Hollywood stars, like George Clooney or Jay-Z, whom the campaign had reportedly sought to enlist.
Bruce Springsteen, who stumped for Obama in 2008, said last week he won’t be hitting the campaign trail for Obama this time, but still supports his re-election.
Ramin Talaie/Bloomberg via Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- Rick Santorum says his 2008 comments that, “Satan has set his sights on the United States of America” are “not relevant” to the 2012 presidential race, but New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told ABC's Good Morning America on Wednesday that Santorum is wrong.
“Listen, I think anything you say as a presidential candidate is relevant. It is by definition relevant. You’re asking to be president of the United States. I don’t think [Santorum's] right about that. I think it is relevant what he says. I think people want to make an evaluation, a complete evaluation of anyone who asks to sit in the Oval Office,” Christie said.
Adding to the religious discussion on the campaign trail, on Tuesday, Santorum said he would “defend everything” he says and Mitt Romney said the Obama administration has “fought against religion.”
But Christie doesn’t think a debate over religion is a conversation the Republican Party wants to engage in.
“Do I think it’s the things we should be as a party talking about and emphasizing at the moment? No,” he said.
“I think the idea of the fighting against religion piece of this goes to more to Obamacare issue and the invasion of Obamacare into maybe some religious freedom issues. I think that’s an interesting conversation and an important one to have in the context of overall Obamacare and what’s that going to mean for the country if it goes forward after the Supreme Court arguments this spring,” he said.
Christie -- an outspoken supporter of Romney -- partly blamed the former Massachusetts governor’s lack of traction on the Republicans changing the rules from winner takes all to awarding delegates on a proportional basis.
And in his blunt style, Christie outright said Republicans are still asking him to enter the 2012 race, as Politico first reported.
“What I say back to them is I’m supporting Mitt Romney and I’m going to do everything I can to make sure he wins the nomination and is going to become president come January 2013,” he said.
He added, regarding his own rumored 2012 run: “I don’t know how many times I have to say it. The answer is no."
Bill Clark/Roll Call(NEW YORK) -- Mitt Romney’s campaign is hoping that when Donald Trump calls, Michiganders will listen.
Trump has recorded a robo-call, paid for by the Romney campaign, which is highly critical of rival presidential candidate Rick Santorum.
“This is Donald Trump and I have to tell you that I’m tired of Rick Santorum pretending that he’s some kind of D.C. outsider,” Trump says on the call.
The Apprentice host dismisses the former Pennsylvania senator as a “career politician” who has, “never had a job in the private sector.” The real estate mogul accuses Santorum of working as a lobbyist before and after serving in Washington.
“Rick Santorum is completely entrenched in the Washington culture and he has been for decades,” Trump says.
Santorum lobbied for the World Wrestling Federation in the 1980s and worked as a consultant to several companies after he lost his re-election bid to the U.S. Senate in 2006.
Trump, who endorsed Romney in Las Vegas in early February, has not appeared alongside the candidate since then. However, there are fresh signs that the Romney campaign is making strategic use of their celebrity endorser.
Trump joined Romney in New York City last week to make a round of fundraising and he has been hitting the airwaves for the former Massachusetts governor in Michigan.
On the robo-call, which will begin on Wednesday, Trump calls Romney an “outsider in the race” who “knows how to handle” China and OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries).
“He’s a good man, he’s working hard,” Trump says of Romney. “He will win. You’ve got to give him that chance.”
EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images(DETROIT) -- Mitt Romney has not taken questions from reporters in a press conference for nearly two weeks, the longest stretch he has gone without doing so since early November.
The former Massachusetts governor last held a press conference in Atlanta on Feb. 8, and has not done so again since.
In the fall, Romney went more than two weeks in between press conferences, holding one on Oct. 26 in Virginia and not doing so again until Nov. 11 in South Carolina.
At the beginning of January, he would hold near-daily press conferences, during one stretch holding one on Jan. 9, 11, 12, and 17.
Romney has, of course, maintained a public campaign schedule, including town halls and tele-town halls where he solicits questions from voters. He has also done several local news interviews.
In contrast, Sen. Rick Santorum held press conferences on Feb. 9, 15 and 18, while Newt Gingrich has held four press conferences since Feb. 13.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- The Rev. Franklin Graham, son of evangelist Billy Graham, questioned the president’s religious faith Tuesday, saying he was unsure whether Obama was a Christian.
“I think you have to ask President Obama,” Graham said when asked on MSNBC’s Morning Joe whether the president is a Christian. “He has said he’s a Christian, so I just have to assume that he is.”
While Graham said there was “no question” that Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is a man of faith, he doesn’t know whether the president is a Christian. The reverend also declined to say whether he thought Mitt Romney’s Mormon faith qualified him as a Christian.
“He’s a Mormon,” he said. “Most Christians would not recognize Mormonism as part of the Christian faith.”
The CEO and president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association said Obama told him he started attending church only because community groups in Chicago told him he needed to do so to work with them.
“You have to go by what a person says and how they live their life and where they go to church. Are they faithful church-goers? Or do they just go when the cameras are on them,” Graham said.
Graham explained his belief that the Muslim world sees Obama as a “son of Islam” because of his father’s religious beliefs.
“Under Islamic law, the Muslim world sees Barack Obama as a Muslim. … That’s just the way it works,” he said. “That’s the way they see him. But, of course, he says he didn’t grow up that way, he doesn’t believe in that, he believes in Jesus Christ, so I accept that.”
Graham also raised concerns about the president’s dedication to Christians living in Muslim countries, saying Islam has had a “free pass” under the Obama administration.
“[Under] President Obama, the Muslims of the world, he seems to be more concerned about them than the Christians that are being murdered in the Muslim countries. That’s what bothers me,” he said.
Steve Pope/Getty Images(PHOENIX) -- Rick Santorum made a veiled mention Tuesday evening of a controversy that bubbled up after audio of a speech the candidate gave in 2008 in which he said Satan was attacking U.S. institutions in government and religion made its way around the Internet.
“I think the reason we are doing so well is because we are available to the American public, no teleprompters, no speeches … sometimes, I’ve been told that when you don’t read off a teleprompter, they may find a thing or two and say, ‘Oh, he said this and he might mean this,’” Santorum said at a rally in Phoenix.
“And the media complains so much about these structured candidates and how they are all so robotic,” he said. “And then of course when they have a candidate that doesn’t do any of those things they say, ‘Oh he’s really out there, you have to worry about what he says.’ No you don’t, because I will defend everything I say.”
In the 2008 speech at the conservative Catholic Ave Maria University in Florida, Santorum praised the Catholic Bishop Samuel Aquila for pledging to deny communion to politicians who support abortion rights and said the matter went beyond politics and was a symptom of Satan’s reach in U.S. society.
The story was the lead item on the Drudge Report Tuesday and the candidate was asked about it after the address to about 250 people.
“These are questions that are not relevant to what is being discussed in America today; what we are talking about in America today is trying to get America going,” Santorum said on Tuesday. “That’s what my speech is about, that’s what we have been talking about in this campaign. If you want to dig up old speeches of me talking to a religious group, then go right ahead and do so, but I’m going to stay on message and I’m going to talk about things that Americans want to talk about: creating jobs, making our country safe and secure and, yeah, taking on the forces around this world that want to do harm to America.”
Santorum again seemed to mention the issue when he said to the crowd that his campaign “has been about very simple things” and America is a country “that when someone is in trouble, and forces of evil are moving, America would stand up and call evil by its name.”
“Ronald Reagan did that. He called the Soviet Union an evil empire and the media went wild. How dare you describe terms like good and evil to regimes? Because Ronald Reagan told the truth, he didn’t sugarcoat it,” Santorum said.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(PHOENIX) -- Rick Santorum fought back against an ad campaign sponsored by the pro-Romney Super PAC that calls him a “Washington insider” and a “big spender,” arguing in his first event in Arizona that the ads are dead wrong.
The former Pennsylvania senator told the Maricopa County GOP that he may have been in the House and Senate for 16 years, but he was an “outsider” the whole time he was in Washington, contrary to what the Super PAC Restore Our Future ads that have been running in the state for a week say.
“It’s interesting because you hear a lot of talk about who’s the insider and who’s the outsider in this race. And I think it’s really fascinating that here’s the guy who was outside of Washington, who was not a senator or congressman -- not because he didn’t try -- he just never got elected,” Santorum said, referring to Mitt Romney without mentioning his name.
“But someone who was inside Washington who was an outsider when he was inside...because when we came to Congress, we came and we shook things up to its very core,” he said. “We went there and we exposed scandal after scandal -- bi-partisan scandal, bi-partisan scandals where Republicans and Democrats were doing things to undermine the credibility of Washington, D.C.”
In a brand-new line in his stump speeches, Santorum listed his work with the Gang of Seven, including exposing the House banking and congressional post office scandals as reasons he bucked his own party and was an “outsider.”
“It took a group of young folks, a group of young members, who said, ‘We don’t care about the pressure from the establishment in Washington. We don’t care that the leaders, that those who have sway over your committee assignments and all the other things -- they’re called perks of being able to rise in the Congress -- we don’t care. We’re going to do what’s right for the American people.’ And we stood up and we exposed that scandal, and there were a lot of reasons for the victory in 1994,” Santorum said. “But one of the principle reasons was that we exposed broad corruption in Congress after 40 years of Democratic control, and a 32-year-old member, along with six other folks, was willing to have the courage to stand up inside the institution and make the changes that were necessary. That’s what we need again in Washington, D.C.”
Restore Our Future has spent $120,000 in ads in Arizona, mostly all negative ones that attack Santorum and Newt Gingrich. In total, the Super PAC has spent about $14 million on advertising hitting Romney’s opponents.
Santorum spent much of his speech at the Lincoln Day lunch hitting Romney on the ads. He said he got things done in Washington, “unlike some folks who criticize people who actually get elected and actually try to do things, we actually when we were there again, we made a difference inside the institution.”
He mentioned Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl and their work together to impose term limits on Republican leadership in the Senate, really pushing the message that he was willing to take out even his own party to get things done. It’s a popular message with the Tea Party, a group that was largely represented at the event.
“Going in there not being one of the crowd, not being part of the establishment, shaking things up and making a difference that the record I have not just on reforms we can accomplish, but it’s a record of reforms in the United States and the Congress to cut spending,” Santorum said. “You see all these commercials Rick Santorum is a big spender, but they never once mention, talk about how I voted for any increase in the appropriation bills. Why? Because I never did. I voted to cut appropriation bills. They never talk about I voted for a tax increase. Why? Because I never did in sixteen years of public life. I voted for smaller government, lower taxes, less regulation the things that we need desperately in this country.”
The Romney campaign quickly responded to the “Outsider, Insider” hit saying, “Republican primary voters have a clear choice.”
“Mitt Romney spent his career helping turn around companies, the Olympics, and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. At the same time, Congressman/Senator Rick Santorum spent his career in Washington, voting repeatedly to increase the debt ceiling and his own pay. If business as usual in Washington is the problem, Rick Santorum can’t be part of the solution,” Romney spokesperson Ryan Williams said in a statement.
The latest Gallup tracking poll shows Santorum up against Romney ten points nationally and a new Time/CNN poll shows Romney with a slight lead in Arizona with 36 percent support to Santorum’s 32 percent.
Alex Wong/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Ron Paul is once again going after Rick Santorum’s record as a fiscal conservative in a new ad, potentially giving Mitt Romney a boost in the process.
The 30-second ad titled “Fake,” which follows up a similar ad released in January, blasts Santorum for increasing the size of government by voting “to raise the debt ceiling five times” as well as “doubling the size of the Department of Education” and voting “to send billions of our tax dollars to dictators in North Korea and Egypt.”
The ad even criticizes Santorum for hooking up Planned Parenthood “with a few million bucks.”
The “Fake” ad is scheduled to begin airing this weekend in Michigan, which could provide a valuable boost to Mitt Romney, who is locked in a dead heat with rival Rick Santorum in that state.
Ron Paul and Mitt Romney reportedly have a friendly relationship, which Romney has worked to cultivate.
“I talk to Romney more than the rest on a friendly basis,” Paul told The New York Times.
The two are veterans of the 2008 Republican primary, and when Romney got himself into trouble in New Hampshire over his comments about leveraged buyouts, Paul came to his defense by issuing a press release assailing his rivals for taking Romney’s quote about firing people out of context.
And Paul rarely criticizes Romney on the stump but instead refers to him vaguely in mentions of “the governor’s millions made on Wall Street.”
Paul’s aides say publicly that the congressman is committed to winning the nomination.
And over the weekend, Paul said that his rivals “are part of the status quo and they are not change."
“They don’t want to really change anything. That’s what I’m offering,” said Paul.
But the Paul campaign’s announcement Tuesday that it has raised about $4.5 million in January is proof that the congressman has formidable financial resources for an extended nomination fight.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(NEW YORK) -- It's a match made in tax reform heaven. The diehard promoter of tax code simplicity has teamed up with the Main Street icon of small-business tax plans to promote what is perhaps the most well-known tax reform plan in history: 9-9-9.
Herman Cain announced Tuesday that he's partnered with Joe Wurzelbacher, aka "Joe the Plumber" of 2008 election campaign fame, who is now running for the U.S. House in Ohio, to continue the fight for a tax code based on a 9-percent personal income tax, 9-percent corporate income tax and a 9-percent national sales tax.
"Joe the Plumber agrees that 'blowing up' the current federal tax code is paramount to the success of this nation," Cain said in a statement. "And we have seen firsthand he's not afraid to tell the president so."
Wurzelbacher reached national notoriety during the 2008 general election for asking then-candidate Obama during a campaign sweep through Ohio whether he would have to pay more taxes if he bought a plumbing business that made $250,000 to $280,000 a year.
Obama's general election rival John McCain seized the moment and often cited "Joe the Plumber" as an everyday American who would be adversely affected by his opponent's tax plan, even though analysts offered varying opinions as to whether Wurzelbacher would have received a tax increase or a tax cut under Obama's plan.
Four years and a heavy dose of frustration with elected officials later, Wurzelbacher is taking matters into his own hands and pledging to promote Cain's 9-9-9 tax plan if elected to Congress.
Wurzelbacher is hopping on the Cain Train, or rather the "Cain Revolution" bus, for a three-event swing through Ohio this week. The two will appear together at two rallies and a Lincoln Day dinner.
"Joe is an unconventional candidate, just like I was," Cain said. "He shows a true workingman's appreciation for what it is to be a good steward of the hard-earned money the government takes from us in the form of taxes."
Official White House Photo by Pete Souza(WASHINGTON) -- Senior administration officials said that on Wednesday the Obama administration will put forth its proposal for corporate tax reform.
The announcement will come from the Treasury Department.
When pressed for details, administration officials pointed reporters to President Obama’s comments about tax reform during the State of the Union address.
The president in his speech last month decried how “right now, companies get tax breaks for moving jobs and profits overseas. Meanwhile, companies that choose to stay in America get hit with one of the highest tax rates in the world. It makes no sense, and everyone knows it. So let’s change it.”
His basic three rules were, in his words:
1. “First, if you’re a business that wants to outsource jobs, you shouldn’t get a tax deduction for doing it. That money should be used to cover moving expenses for companies like Master Lock that decide to bring jobs home."
2. “Second, no American company should be able to avoid paying its fair share of taxes by moving jobs and profits overseas. From now on, every multinational company should have to pay a basic minimum tax. And every penny should go towards lowering taxes for companies that choose to stay here and hire here in America."
3. “Third, if you’re an American manufacturer, you should get a bigger tax cut. If you’re a high-tech manufacturer, we should double the tax deduction you get for making your products here. And if you want to relocate in a community that was hit hard when a factory left town, you should get help financing a new plant, equipment, or training for new workers.”
ABC/ DONNA SVENNEVIK(SHELBY TOWNSHIP, Mich.) -- Mitt Romney attacked President Obama’s “secular agenda” during a town hall in which he drew contrasts between himself and GOP rival Rick Santorum and defended his stance on conservative social issues for voters still making up their minds before next week’s primary.
“You expect the president of the United States to be sensitive to that freedom and protect it and, unfortunately, perhaps because of the people the president hangs around with, and their agenda, their secular agenda, they have fought against religion,” Romney said, responding to a question about religious freedoms, in particular the Obama administration’s recent controversial attempt to require all institutions, including those with religious affiliations, to offer free birth control and other contraceptives.
The policy was later rewritten to allow certain institutions to refuse the provisions and instead allow for private insurance to offer the coverage -- a "compromise" Catholic bishops blasted as unacceptable.
“I can assure you, as someone who has understood very personally the significance of religious tolerance and religious freedom and the right to one’s own conscience, I will make sure that we never again attack religious liberty in the United States of America,” Romney said, seemingly referring to his own Mormon faith, which has frequently been questioned during his various campaigns.
Romney, who was introduced by Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette as “an underdog,” spoke optimistically about his chances in his home state, telling reporters when asked about his state of mind, “Plan on winning, hope to win.”
But not all audience members who went to the town hall -- held at fabrication company Eagle Manufacturer Corp. -- were convinced that Romney is the one they’ll vote for next Tuesday. Feleiteau Epley, admitting that she had attended “the other fella’s thing last week,” in reference to one of Santorum’s campaign events, asked Romney about abortion and gay marriage.
“I actually came in here undecided and I’ve been listening and everything is absolutely wonderful,” Epley said. “One last question though will help me feel more comfortable. I just want to hear you say that you are 100 percent pro-life....100 percent no abortions...and 100 percent supporting marriage between one woman and one man.”
“I am pro-life,” Romney said flatly of his anti-abortion stance. “I am in favor of protecting the sanctity of life. I will cut off funding to Planned Parenthood. I’ll reinstate the Mexico City policy. I’ll make sure we appoint justices who follow the Constitution, don’t stray from the Constitution to follow their own path.”
Romney, 64, even invoked his pro-life position during an answer to a question about who might fill the vice presidential slot if he becomes the nominee.
“My vice presidential nominee will be pro-life,” he said. “If I am fortunate to become the nominee, I will also choose someone who is conservative to the core, who understands what it takes to make America strong again, and who is unquestionably an individual who can lead the nation if something were to happen to me.”
Another woman in the audience asked Romney how he and his “campaign people” are going to, “convince Michiganders in the next week that Rick Santorum is nothing but a Washington insider.”
“We have very different backgrounds. Sen. Santorum hasn’t been as carefully viewed by the American public as have the others. We had Donald Trump for awhile and then we had Herman Cain and we had Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich. They have all been vetted pretty carefully. Rick Santorum is now just being seen for the first time in many homes and his background and mine are very different.
“The fact that he continues to defend earmarks, including his $500,000 earmark to the Pittsburgh zoo for a polar bear exhibit, I don’t think that is consistent with the principles of conservatism,” Romney said. “I don’t think Rick Santorum’s track record is that of fiscal conservative.”
This was Romney’s first town hall event since Feb. 10, when he held a similar event in Maine. Town hall events were commonplace in the weeks leading up to the New Hampshire primary but have been less frequent as the primary season has progressed.
Ingram Publishing/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- President Obama on Tuesday said Congress “did the right thing” by extending the payroll tax cut and he urged lawmakers to “keep going” and act on measures to help the middle class.
“My message to Congress is, don't stop here,” the president said at a White House event highlighting the compromise to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance. “Keep taking the action that people are calling for to keep this economy growing.”
The president urged lawmakers to act on his refinance plan to help underwater homeowners and to make his proposed “Buffett Rule” a reality.
“This may be an election year, but the American people have no patience for gridlock and just a reflexive partisanship and just paying attention to poll numbers and the next election instead of the next generation and what we can do to strengthen opportunity for all Americans,” Obama said. “Americans don't have the luxury to put off tough decisions, and neither should we.”
The payroll tax cut was a central piece of the jobs plan Obama put forth last September and the White House described it as the last “must-do” piece of legislation ahead of the election.
Calling it a “big deal,” the president Tuesday said the legislation, which he will sign into law when it reaches his desk later this week, will help middle class Americans by providing an extra $40 in their paycheck.
“That $40 helps to pay the rent, the groceries, the rising cost of gas -- which is on a lot of people's minds right now,” Obama said as he stood with Americans who the administration said will benefit from the tax cut.
“Congress did the right thing here. They listened to the voice of the American people. Each side made a few compromises. We passed some important reforms to help turn unemployment insurance into re- employment insurance, so that more people get training and the skills they need to get back in a job,” the president said.
Republicans have questioned the president’s cause for celebration. “It’s not a victory when the economy is still so weak that you feel the need to grant a temporary reduction in the payroll tax,” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said in a written statement. “It’s a victory when this kind of government relief isn’t needed at all. That’s what we should be rooting for. The fact that the President and his allies in Congress can’t see that is all you need to know about their approach to the economy and what they have in store for the future.”
JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- And the winner of January’s presidential campaign fundraising contest is: President Obama, whose campaign took in $11.83 million last month.
The pro-Newt-Gingrich super PAC Winning Our Future took a close second. With a combined $10 million given on Jan. 24 by billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson and his wife, the group raised more than any other GOP presidential super PAC or campaign in the month of January. Without the Adelsons’ donations, Winning Our Future would have lagged far behind its competitors: The Adelsons’ contributions accounted for all but $1.03 million of the group’s January haul.
The January finance totals, filed with the Federal Election Commission on Monday’s deadline, provide a snapshot of where the campaigns were three weeks ago, just after Mitt Romney’s victory in the Florida primary and before Rick Santorum’s wins in Colorado and Minnesota shifted the momentum of the race.
Now that we’ve moved into the election year, campaigns and super PACs will file every month -- meaning we’ll get to see their activities three times as frequently as we have so far, with quarterly disclosure deadlines in 2011.
Below are all the basic numbers disclosed Monday. The totals only cover fundraising and spending from Jan. 1 to Jan. 31.
CAMPAIGNS
Obama for America Raised: $11.87 million Spent: $17.67 million Cash on hand Jan. 1: $81.76 million Cash on hand Jan. 31: $75.95 million Debts/obligations: $1.06 million
Rick Santorum for President Raised: $4.51 million Spent: $3.32 million Cash on hand Jan. 1: $279k Cash on hand Jan. 31: $1.47 million Debts/obligations: $0
Romney for President Inc. Raised: $6.54 million Spent: $18.78 million Cash on hand Jan. 1: $19.92 million Cash on hand Jan. 31: $7.68 million Debts/obligations: $0
Newt 2012 Raised: $5.59 million Spent: $5.91 million Cash on hand Jan. 1: $2.11 million Cash on hand Jan. 31: $1.79 million Debts/obligations: $1.73 million
Ron Paul 2012 Presidential Campaign Committee Inc. Raised: $4.48 million Spent: $5.23 million Cash on hand Jan. 1: $2.4 million Cash on hand Jan. 31: $1.65 million Debts/obligations: $0
SUPER PACs
Pro-Obama Priorities USA Action Raised: $59k Spent: $258k Cash on hand Jan. 1: $1.52 million Cash on hand Jan. 31: $1.32 million Debts/obligations: $0
Pro-Santorum Red White and Blue Fund Raised: $2.09 million Spent: $1.54 million Cash on hand Jan. 1: $78k Cash on hand Jan. 31: $627k Debts/obligations: $0
Pro-Romney Restore Our Future Raised: $6.62 million Spent: $13.94 million Cash on hand Jan. 1: $23.62 million Cash on hand Jan. 31: $16.3 million Debts/obligations: $0
Pro-Gingrich Winning Our Future Raised: $11.03 million Spent: $9.76 million Cash on hand Jan. 1: $1.18 million Cash on hand Jan. 31: $2.44 Debts/obligations: $0 Pro-Paul Endorse Liberty Raised: $2.38 million Spent: $2.95 million Cash on hand Jan. 1: $628k Cash on hand Jan. 31: $60K Debts/obligations: $0
Joe Raedle/Getty Images(CINCINNATI) -- As Sen. Rick Santorum holds on to his lead in the polls, Mitt Romney arrived in Ohio Monday for a speech with little fanfare, walking out without his customary campaign music and without an enthusiastic response from the crowd.
Speaking at a biopharmaceutical manufacturer, Romney repeated his latest attacks on Santorum, accusing the former Pennsylvania senator of overspending during his years in Congress, but did so to a crowd that was more muted than his usual animated, sign-holding, autograph-seeking audiences.
“One of the people I’m running against, Sen. Santorum, goes to Washington and calls himself a budget hawk,” said Romney, who received only halfhearted applause during his speech, which clocked in at just under 15 minutes. “Then after he’s been there a while he says he’s no longer a budget hawk.”
The latest daily Gallup national poll shows Santorum with a 10-point lead over Romney.
While Romney usually walks out at events to a blaring rendition of Kid Rock’s “Born Free,” on Monday he walked out silently next to Sen. Bob Portman, who endorsed Romney earlier this year and introduced him at the event. At the end of the event, a softer version of the song could be heard humming quietly from the speakers.
Missing was the standing ovation the former Massachusetts governor usually receives upon entering a room, and in its place shy waves from a group of supporters standing behind Romney’s podium.
“Well, I am a budget hawk,” Romney told the crowd of about 100. “I don’t want to spend more money than we take in. I don’t believe it’s appropriate for us to keep raising the debt ceiling every year. He voted five times to raise the debt ceiling without getting compensating cuts in spending. During his time in the Senate, only two terms, the size of the federal government grew 80 percent."
“When Republicans go to Washington and spend like Democrats, you’re going to have a lot of spending, and that’s what we’ve seen over the last several years,” he said.
This was Romney’s only campaign event on Monday, while Santorum had four events, traveling to both Michigan and Ohio. Romney was scheduled to hold a private fundraiser in Cincinnati Monday night before heading to Shelby, Mich., for a town hall there on Tuesday.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(MUSKEGON, Mich.) -- After several days of sticking to social issues, and sometimes being called to clarify controversial statements, GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum came to Western Michigan Monday preaching a purely economic message, focusing on energy and manufacturing.
“Skyrocketing gas prices may put a halt to the improving economy -- such that it is,” Santorum said. “It’s not going to take much to slow down this little train.”
Santorum pledged to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to drilling, approve the Keystone Pipeline and allow for more hydrofracking to tap domestic natural gas reserves, all strategies Obama has resisted -- or in the case of ANWR and Keystone, rejected outright.
Santorum again clarified his recent comments about President Obama’s “theology.”
“I was criticized the other day. I don’t know if you saw Bob Schieffer’s show [Face the Nation on CBS]. I was criticized [for saying] that the president has radical environmental ideology, even theology,” Santorum said. “It’s one that puts man just like any other species out there. The Earth is the objective. We focus on the Earth and we don’t worry about man. …We believe man has dominion over the Earth and is steward of the Earth… Man has an obligation to protect Earth, be good stewards.”
Santorum subtly jabbed Mitt Romney, but did not mention him by name, suggesting it was hypocritical for the former Massachusetts governor to have supported the Wall Street bailout, but not a bailout for Michigan’s auto industry.
“Other folks competing here in Michigan supported the financial bailout of Wall Street but not the bailout here of the auto industry,” he said. “I was opposed [to the bailout] on principal, but also from experience. To be for one [bailout] and not the other, you have to explain that to me.”
He did, however, name Romney surrogate billionaire Donald Trump, who will campaign in Michigan for Romney.
“I get a kick out of my ‘friend’ Donald Trump. I put ‘friend’ in quotes,” Santorum said. “He says of me, ‘He can’t win, he failed his last race.’ Oh, I guess Donald has never failed in anything.”
Yoon S. Byun/The Boston Globe via Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Current and former service members staged a rally outside the White House Monday in support of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul.
Several hundred troops and their supporters attended the event. The veterans were men and women, young and old, some in uniform and some in plain clothes.
The demonstration was a mostly silent affair, with the veterans standing calmly at attention in rows. An organizer bellowed that each second of quiet was for every military suicide since President Obama took office. A second moment of silence was for each soldier who died abroad under the current commander-in-chief.
One protester held a sign reading, “Don’t let anybody make you think that God chose America to be a policeman of the whole world.” The line was paraphrased from remarks by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. regarding the Vietnam War.
The event concluded with an organizer parading the procession away, complete with color guard.
Ron Paul shares an unusually high percentage of supporters in the military compared to the other candidates, and it shows in his campaign funding. The Center for Responsible Politics reports the candidate touted more than $95,000 between September 2011 and January in individual donations from current and former members of the military -- higher than any other candidate. Obama comes in second at roughly $72,000.
It is an attribute the libertarian lawmaker is quick to highlight on the campaign trail. As a former Air Force flight surgeon, Dr. Paul is the only former serviceman campaigning for president, now that Rick Perry is no longer in contention.
Jessica McGowan/Getty Images(TULSA, Okla.) -- While discussing the threat of Iran Monday to a crowd of about 4,000 people at Oral Roberts University, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said that defeating President Obama was, “in fact, a duty of national security.”
“Because the fact is, he is incapable of defending the United States,” he said.
Gingrich told the crowd, many of them young students, that there was a real threat of an American city being wiped out. He said the Obama administration refuses to acknowledge radical Islamists.
“All of you should be very deeply concerned about national security. Barack Obama is the most dangerous president in modern American history,” Gingrich said.
The former House speaker said the Obama administration was demonstrating “willful dishonesty” over describing what motivated the suspected terrorist from Morocco, who was arrested Friday by FBI agents for allegedly plotting to blow up the Capitol.
“Any honest person knows what motivated the person who came here,” Gingrich said. “This is not smearing everybody, this is not Islamaphobia. If we can’t have honest conversation about radical Islamists and we can’t figure out -- there is a very specific group of people across the planet -- there’s a very specific desire to kill us.”
Gingrich said the Obama administration was intellectually disarmed and incapable of describing threats that face the United States.
“The president wants to unilaterally weaken the United States, he wants to cut the aid to Israel for its anti-ballistic missile defense, he refuses to take Iran seriously,” he said. “We are in a world that is very dangerous. And I say this to those of you who represent the next generation because you’re going to bear the consequences.”
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images(NOVI, Mich.) -- Mitt Romney raked in $6.5 million during the month of January, but public records show that the campaign has only a fraction of what it made at the start of the year still left in the bank after a month littered with expensive primaries.
Romney began January with more than $19.9 million in cash on hand, but by the close of business on Jan. 31 was down to $7.7 million, having spent more than $18 million, according to financial disclosure forms made public Monday. Romney has still not given any of his personal fortune -- estimated to be anywhere between $190 million and $250 million -- to his campaign, and the campaign has no debt.
But January held four of the major primaries -- Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Florida -- and the cost that comes with running a campaign in four major states is evident in Team Romney’s financial disclosure forms, which were posted online on Monday.
Romney won in both New Hampshire and Florida, and a review of the financial disclosure forms by ABC News reveal that much of the money spent over the course of the month was spent on reaching or communicating with voters -- at a final price tag of more than $10 million.
Placed media set the Romney campaign back more than $8 million in January alone, with online advertising costing $755,000. The campaign spent more than $600,000 on direct mail, $494,000 on polling and more than $14,000 on robocalls and telemarketing.
The money spent on placed media included items in New Hampshire newspapers the Nashua Telegraph and The Union Leader, the South Carolina paper The State, and The Villages Daily Sun, the newspaper at the ritzy retirement community known as The Villages near Orlando, Fla.
The bulk of the media work was done by American Rambler Productions, according to the public records, which includes some of Romney’s most senior advisors, including Stuart Stevens, Russ Schriefer and Eric Ferhnstrom.
Romney’s National Finance Chair Spencer Zwick said in an e-mail statement announcing the month’s fundraising that the campaign “exceeded” its goals.
“We have exceeded our fundraising goals and are on track with spending plans,” Zwick said. “We are the only campaign who has the organization and resources to go the distance of a long primary process. We know there is a long road ahead and we will remain steady.”
By comparison, despite his high burn rate, Romney still out-raised his GOP counterparts. According to public records, former Speaker Newt Gingrich raised $5.59 million in January and spent more than $5.91 million, leaving him with $1.79 million on hand and $1.73 in debt. Former Sen. Rick Santorum raised $4.51 million, spent $3.32 million and has $1.47 million with no debt. Ron Paul raised $4.48 million, spent $5.23 million and has $1.65 million on hand with no debt.
iStockPhoto/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- On a windswept Presidents Day afternoon, Aaron Perlut unveiled what could be considered his magnum opus: a Million Mustache March set for April Fool’s Day.
Standing before a small crowd of supporters and tourists who, curious, had ambled toward the pro-mustache music blaring from his stage on the U.S. Capitol’s West Lawn, the American Mustache Institute chairman also rolled out the “Stache Act,” a bill that would provide a $250 tax credit to mustached Americans. Perlut touted the support of tax giant H&R Block, which really did agree to support the endeavor.
“According to AMI science, we’ve increased mustache growth and thus good looks by 38 percent in this country. But those good looks came at a cost in the form of American-made facial grooming products such as beard and mustache trimmers, facial hair dyes, karate training devices, mayonnaise and dynamite. Indeed, those accoutrements are not free,” Perlut said.
“It is clear that mustache maintenance costs qualify and should be considered a deductible expense related to the production of income underneath Internal Revenue Service Code Section 212, and, hence, the Million Mustache March,” he added.
Along for the ride was John Yeutter, a tax professor at Northeastern State University who wrote the “Stache Act” and AMI’s accompanying tax-policy white paper. Yeutter also sports a fearsome handlebar.
The April 1 Million Mustache March will be partly for mustaches, partly for fun and partly for charity. For each attendee, H&R Block has agreed to make a donation to Millions From One, a group that seeks to deliver safe drinking water around the world by purchasing equipment and developing infrastructure. Perlut’s plan is to lead one million mustachioed men from the Capitol to the White House.
H&R Block may seem a bit stodgy for the libertine AMI, which once promoted the “sexually adventurous lifestyle” of the mustached American male on its answering machine, and which holds an open grudge against alt-rock guitarist Dave Navarro, but the company found virtue in AMI’s goals.
“It fits our brand message of ‘never settle for less,’ and that applies to mustached Americans as well as everyone else,” Matthew Staub, H&R Block marketing manager for social media, told ABC News at the event. “We have some very impressive mustaches on our staff.”
If it succeeds, the Million Mustache March will likely be the top mustache-and-tax-policy-centered charitable event of 2012.
The Jim Bohannon Show
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