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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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