Mitt Romney to campaign in Pennsylvania on Sunday

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will make a trip to the Philadelphia area on Sunday afternoon, a stop just two days before Election Day intended to signal the seriousness of Republican efforts in the state.

Confirmation of the trip from a Romney aide came just hours after Republican National Committee (RNC) Communications Director Sean Spicer tweeted that the party had secured a $3 million ad buy in the state. Republicans have maintained in recent days that they are looking to make a serious play for the state, despite what has been a consistent lead for the president in the polls there.

But that lead has shrunk in recent days, with a Franklin & Marshall poll of the state released earlier this week showing President Obama just 4 points ahead.

The RNC spending is in addition to ad buys by the Romney campaign and outside groups in the state. On Wednesday, Americans for Prosperity, the conservative super-PAC backed by the billionaire Koch brothers, announced they would spend $3 million in Pennsylvania and Michigan, while pro-Romney super-PAC Restore our Future pledged $2.1 million in the state. Americans for Job Security, another Republican group, also announced plans for aggressive spending, while the Romney campaign itself has bought $2 million in airtime in Philadelphia.

During a conference call with reporters Wednesday, Romney aide Russ Schriefer contended Romney was "in an excellent position to win" in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Minnesota, states that just weeks ago were considered safely in the president's column.

"Can we win all of them? Probably not," Schriefer said. "Can we win some of them? I think so."

And Romney political director Rich Beeson argued in a memo distributed to reporters that the campaign saw a real opportunity in the Keystone State.

"This expansion of the electoral map demonstrates that Gov. Romney’s momentum has jumped containment from the usual target states and has spread to deeper-blue states that Chicago never anticipated defending,” Romney political director Rich Beeson argued in a memo released Tuesday afternoon.

By sending Romney to the state days before the election, the campaign is also looking to combat perceptions that it is simply spending leftover money before Election Day. But advisers to the Obama campaign aren't buying it, with top adviser David Axelrod telling reporters he would shave his iconic mustache if Romney carried the state.

Interestingly, John McCain visited Pennsylvania two days before Election Day in 2008, though the Arizona senator went on to lose the state by double digits.

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