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"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource."
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What’s Wrong With Pennsylvania?
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Race
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| Contributor | karin1492 |
| Last Edited | karin1492 Sep 25, 2012 01:48am |
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| Category | Analysis |
| News Date | Tuesday, September 25, 2012 07:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | On June 30, 2011, an enthusiastic Mitt Romney arrived here in the heart of the Lehigh Valley determined to make Pennsylvania a presidential battleground state.
Standing before the closed Allentown Metal Works, Romney told reporters: “The president is a nice guy and I know he’s trying, but he doesn’t understand how the economy works” — a line that Romney later observed had resonated with focus groups.
A key assumption underpinned Romney’s appearance in Allentown — that the working class whites who once dominated this great industrial center would back the Republican nominee.
Pennsylvania demographics suggested that the state was fair game for Republicans. Seniors are a key source of support for Romney, and the state has a higher percentage of voters over the age of 65, 15.6 percent, than the country as a whole (13.3 percent). Pennsylvania is substantially whiter, at 79.2 percent, than the rest of the nation (63.4 percent). And unemployment in Pennsylvania matches the national rate at 8.1 percent.
Both the Obama and Romney campaigns made significant investments in advertising in Pennsylvania. The pro-Romney super PAC, Restore Our Future, and two conservative PACs, Crossroads GPS and Americans For Prosperity, have together spent a total of $9.7 million; the Obama campaign and its allied super PAC, Priorities USA Action, have spent $8 million.
By the end of August, however, ad buying stopped. The Romney campaign effectively conceded the state. |
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