Campaign

This year, Mitt Romney is trying to make history — of a sort. The last victorious presidential candidate who failed to carry his political home state was Woodrow Wilson in 1916, nearly a century ago. But if Romney prevails in the electoral college this November, he will need to do so without the support of Massachusetts, the state he served as governor for four years and the site of his national campaign headquarters. Public opinion surveys of Bay State voters reveal a consistently wide lead for Barack Obama despite the favorite-son status of his Republican opponent, and both sides openly acknowledge that the outcome is not in doubt. Boston-area residents are being subjected this fall to a steady stream of media advertising on behalf of both candidates, but only because our neighbors to the north in the more competitive state of New Hampshire tend to watch our television stations—and thus are the true target audience for the campaigns’ dueling ad blitzes.

The last time Wisconsinites had a chance to vote for one of their own in a presidential contest the year was 1924 and the candidate was the progressive firebrand Fightin’ Bob LaFollette. In that year, the Badger state resisted the national Coolidge landslide and instead gave the nod to its favorite son, a testament to the power of homegrown loyalty in presidential voting. In choosing Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney was, no doubt, hoping to cultivate a similar degree of loyalty in a critical swing state. Despite this, it is unlikely that the selection of Ryan will provide the needed shot in the arm for the Romney campaign in Wisconsin.

It has been a tumultuous couple of years in Wisconsin politics. Starting with the election of Scott Walker and his elimination of public worker collective bargaining, Wisconsin has been deeply — and very evenly — divided. Through recall, the Democrats managed to take back control of the state senate (a significant but largely symbolic victory, given that the legislative session had already ended and much of the Walker agenda had already been enacted), but they failed in winning back the governor’s seat. Whether this is because people are uncomfortable with the concept of the recall, as some have said, or they are supportive of Scott Walker’s policies, as others have said, I don’t think this tell us much of anything about what Wisconsin will do in November. In addition, I doubt Wisconsin will provide the deciding Electoral College vote for the upcoming election. Look to larger states for that—Florida, Ohio, or Pennsylvania.

Although overlooked in a campaign focused elsewhere, Louisiana is, nevertheless, solidly supportive of Mitt Romney's presidential bid and will deliver its eight electoral votes for Romney-Ryan on November 6. It was not always so. In the primary, the twenty-four percent of Louisiana Republicans who voted supported Rick Santorum over Romney by 22 points (49-27%). Among those who described themselves as "very conservative," support for Santorum reached 53% to Romney's 23%.

More than any other nation, America today represents liberty and opportunity. Upon this, leaders of both political parties eagerly agree. For evidence, we need look no further than the past decade, when the United States set a record with the arrival of nearly 14 million immigrants, the majority of whom are Latino.
 
The lure of liberty has long been a powerful draw for millions of immigrants to America, and immense pride is a mainstay during naturalized citizenship ceremonies throughout the nation. Aside from the Native Americans and those brought here against their will, we are a nation of immigrants.

Florida, and the I-4 corridor, will be ground zero in the 2012 presidential election, and it's choice for president will be  the central, deciding factor in who will be sworn in as president. For a variety of reasons, Mitt Romney has an excellent opportunity to take Florida’s electoral votes from Barack Obama.
Florida is a microcosm of the United States with a diverse population. Its voters are similarly focused on jobs and the economy, the key issues in the 2012 election. Florida has been particularly hard hit with devastated real estate and construction industries and unemployment has exceeded national levels throughout the Obama Administration.  

With six weeks left until Election Day, President Obama seems poised to win Virginia, again. And, for good measure, Tim Kaine looks likely to win Virginia’s open Senate seat.

Much of the impetus for those victories will come from Northern Virginia.

On Wednesday evening, I offered an amendment in the Rules Committee to have the House consider the Senate-passed five year farm bill prior to Congress leaving Washington for seven weeks. For reasons that are beyond me, House Republicans blocked my amendment by a ratio of 8 to 2, along strict party lines. In so doing, they ensured that millions of American farmers would be left in a state of uncertainty and vulnerability. During that meeting, instead of considering the farm bill, or any of the other major pieces of legislation that the House has avoided under Republican leadership, we considered a recycled package of 5 anti-environment bills, 4 of which had already passed the House. Why? Because it was more important to vote on a hyper-partisan messaging bill than to provide real, tangible support for our farmers.

Individuals living in Michigan in 2007 and 2008 experienced a sense of hopelessness as month after month Michigan led the nation in unemployment.  Day in and day out news stories featured families being broken up as their children left the state looking for a better future. There was a constant fear that the Big Three Automakers, the job base of hundreds of thousands of working families in Michigan, were about to disappear. 


It isn’t your fault if you tune into the House of Representatives floor proceedings this week and mistakenly think you’re watching “Groundhog Day.” During the last week Republicans will call the House into session before the November elections, Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader Cantor have chosen to bypass the important issues that the American public is asking for action on – a comprehensive jobs package, a bipartisan farm bill, dealing with the looming fiscal cliff and sequestration – in order to once again consider several extreme anti-environment and anti-public health bills that have already passed the House before but which will never pass the Senate or be signed into law by President Obama.