Thumbs Up? Now, Thumbs Down! NH State Rep Drops Perry For Romney

By Jayde Wyatt | October 28, 2011 - 2:14 AM | 2012 Election, Endorsements, Mitt Romney, New Hampshire 1 views

A gritty, Granite State, howdy-do for Rick Perry…

On the eve of his visit to New Hampshire today, eight-term NH State Rep Norman Major, who has been supporting Rick Perry, switched his allegiance to Mitt Romney.

Perry’s inability to debate effectively and the way he handled himself while debating were the major factors in Major’s decision:

The New Hampshire Union Leader has learned that eight-term state Rep. Norman Major, R-Plaistow, who backed Perry just more than a month ago, is now with Romney.

Major, who heads the Rockingham County delegation in the New Hampshire House and is vice chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, said in an interview he became less impressed with Perry during October.

“When I met Perry, I listened to him and he represented all the things I wanted to see accomplished,” Major said. “He accomplished a lot in the state of Texas, but as I saw him in the debates and how he handles himself, I realized he isn’t going to beat Obama.”

Major said Perry “has a lot of good credentials, but I guess he needs to go through what Romney went through last time and get that experience of running for President. That way he will be more presidential and think more nationally.

“All the answers don’t come from Texas,” said Major. …

Major said Romney “is more presidential and I think stands a better chance of beating Obama than Perry does.

Perry’s strategy:

Perry, after adding several nationally known GOP strategists to his campaign organizational chart this week, after getting much attention for his 20 percent flat-tax plan, and after being backed by magazine publisher Steve Forbes, has gone on the attack against Romney.

On the cable network CNBC earlier this week, Perry labeled Romney a “fat cat,” referring to his personal wealth.

Perry also continued criticizing the health care plan Romney signed into law in Massachusetts, calling it, through a spokesman, an “albatross” for the Bay State.

From PostBulletin.com (McClatchy newspaper):

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Texas Gov. Rick Perry has spent precious little time in New Hampshire, and party activists are starting to notice.

As the governor whisks into the state Friday, just long enough to file the papers needed to appear on the ballot and speak to religious conservatives, questions are growing about how seriously he’s trying to compete.

“It’s very hard to do ‘New Hampshire-lite’ and win,” Steve Duprey, a former state GOP chairman who now serves on the national Republican committee, said Thursday.

Duprey said Perry might need to spend 25 or 30 days in New Hampshire between now and the January primary to do well. That may be impossible given the myriad demands on his time: Iowa, South Carolina, fundraising and, of course, tending to state business once in a while.

“New Hampshire may be small geographically, but it’s Texas-sized in the effort it takes to do well here,” Duprey said. “Coming here for a day, even if you did 10 events, isn’t enough.”
[...]
Dante Scala, chairman of the University of New Hampshire political science department, said Perry isn’t putting in the “sustained effort” needed to do well in the state’s primary, let alone to win. He said it doesn’t appear that the state is Perry’s first or even second priority.

(emphasis, italics added)

Perry may bump into Mitt Romney tonight; The Texan is speaking at a fundraiser for religious conservatives and Romney is speaking at a town hall meeting nearby (his 16th).

Welcome to the team, Representative Major!

► Jayde Wyatt

Mitt Romney in the Online Advertising Lead

By Jared A. | October 27, 2011 - 10:27 PM | 2012 Election, Mitt Romney, Social Media 1 views

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Mitt Romney is investing more money than any of his Republican presidential rivals in online ad and digital media spending to defeat Barack Obama:

With Barack Obama’s re-election campaign and the Democratic National Committee hitting the $5 million mark in online ad related spending alone, Romney has spent more than twice as much as Michele Bachmann on online advertising and other digital efforts, and several hundred thousand dollars more than Herman Cain.

Through September, Romney spent more than $895,000 with digital consulting firm Targeted Victory, much of which most likely went towards online advertising such as display, search, and video ads.

Look below to see a break down of what various Republican 2012 candidates are spending for online advertising:

GOP Presidential Candidates Online Ad/Marketing Spending April-September 2011
Candidate	Amount Spent on Online Ad/Marketing Related Buys
Mitt Romney	$895,229
Michele Bachmann	$394,508
Jon Huntsman	$100,971
Ron Paul	$95,436
Rick Santorum	$68,466
Buddy Roemer	$41,114
Herman Cain	$24,935 (not including video production spending)

You can see that Romney has been quite aggressive in producing quick yet high quality advertisements in which he goes after President Obama Pretty hard. Moreover, these ads are promoted across various social media sites which allows him to reach a wider market that traditional television advertisements. As a result, Romney is using his campaign money creatively, efficiently and wisely when going on the offensive against Obama. He has created many online commercials that has highlighted the failure of Obama’s economic policies and the negative impact that those policies have had on people across the country.

The fact that Romney is ahead in using online advertisements is significant. Barack Obama was very skillful and forward thinking in utilizing the Internet to promote his campaign in the 2008 election. He is sending a strong message to the Obama Campaign that they’re willing to go head to head with him in the arena of online advertising.

The fact that Mitt Romney is far ahead of other GOP rivals in online advertising shows that he’s not interested in playing the short game in winning the Republican nomination but is playing the long game by focusing on defeating Obama by competing aggressively against Obama in online advertisements. Moreover, it demonstrates that Romney is only one who has the money, resources and determination to take Obama on in 2012.

As a result of Mitt Romney being the leader in online advertising, he’s shown himself to be the candidate who is completely dedicated to making Obama a one term president in 2012.

Romney’s View on Foreclosures, WSJ Says it’s “Romney’s Finest Hour”

By Jayde Wyatt | October 27, 2011 - 1:12 PM | 2012 Election, Barack Obama, Economy, Housing Market/Mortgage Industry, Jobs, Mitt Romney, Nevada, Obama Isn't Working, Videos 1 views

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After a string of tax-payer money gobbling housing market prods that proved to be a bust, Obama is hoping a third helping of quantitative easing from the Feds will pump energy into the stagnant market.

On Monday (10/24/11) the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), the government bureaucracy that controls Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, announced it has re-vamped the Home Affordable Refinance Program, known as HARP, to ease rules and reduce or eliminate fees for homeowners facing foreclosure.

In an interview with the Las Vegas Review Journal on Oct 17, Mitt Romney was asked about the housing market and foreclosures. His answer (see below) prompted the DNC to concoct an ad against him (no surprise – they stopped short at including Romney’s full comment).

Today, the Wall Street Journal published this:

Romney’s Finest Hour

He speaks the truth about housing and foreclosures.

Campaigning last week in Nevada, the epicenter of the housing bust, Mr. Romney was asked by the Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial board what he would do about housing and foreclosures. His reply: “One is, don’t try and stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom. Allow investors to buy homes, put renters in them, fix the homes up. Let it turn around and come back up. The Obama Administration has slow-walked the foreclosure processes that have long existed, and as a result we still have a foreclosure overhang.”

How’s that for refreshing? After five years of politicians trying without success to postpone disclosures and levitate the housing market, Mr. Romney dared to tell the truth. Parts of the U.S., including Nevada, still have too many homes, and that supply needs to be sold off and fixed up so the market can find a bottom before home prices can start to rise again. The faster that process proceeds, the faster the recovery will take hold.

For this apostasy, Mr. Romney is getting whacked by the Democratic National Committee in a 30-second TV ad that first aired Tuesday in Arizona: “Almost half of Arizona homeowners underwater. Foreclosures everywhere. And what’s Mitt Romney’s plan?” the ad intones. Then it quotes Mr. Romney: “Don’t try and stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom.’”

The attack ad doesn’t quote the second part of Mr. Romney’s Las Vegas answer, which spoke another truth: “Number two, the credit [that] was given to first time homebuyers was insufficient and inadequate to turn around the housing market. I think it was an ineffective idea. It was a little bit like the cash-for-clunkers program, throwing government money at something which was not market-oriented, did not staunch the decline in home values anymore than it encouraged the auto industry to take off.”

The article mentions that other government plans to “help” the housing market, which “borrowed” money from taxpayers’ pockets, have failed. Five years into the housing bust, 10.9 million Americans are in trouble/underwater with their mortgages.

Mr. Romney’s advice to let the foreclosure and resale process take its course as rapidly as possible until the market finds a “bottom” couldn’t possibly do any worse than the Obama Administration and its frenetic attempts to “save” homeowners have done. To the extent that it encourages a faster recovery it is also more compassionate. … [I]t has also made housing far more affordable for new buyers.

HARP II:

Which brings us to the latest White House housing gesture, Harp II, to make it easier to refinance mortgages guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Harp I was supposed to help four to five million borrowers refinance, but only around 894,000 have used it so far.

So why not double down on lack of success? Harp II will remove many of the restrictions on banks and borrowers that were contained in Harp I to protect taxpayers. These include removing the 125% loan-to-value ceiling for underwater borrowers, dealing with bank litigation concerns, and eliminating the need for a new appraisal. It also extends the end of the program to December 31, 2013, from next June 30.

(emphasis added )

Here is video of Governor Romney’s interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial board. They chose five questions for Romney to answer. (Oct 17, 2011):

► Jayde Wyatt

Romney Announces: TX Congressman Smith Endorsement, MD Campaign Chaired by Gov Ehrlich & RNC’s Pope

By Jayde Wyatt | October 27, 2011 - 8:31 AM | 2012 Election, Debt, Economy, Jobs, Maryland, Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Taxes, Texas 1 views

2 Comments

We’ll begin the day here at MRC with welcome news from The Lone Star State and The Old Line state…

Mitt Romney Announces Support of Texas Congressman Lamar Smith

“I am proud to have Congressman Smith’s support,” said Mitt Romney. “On issues that I have focused on such as border security and job creation, Lamar has been at the forefront in the Congress. I look forward to working closely with Lamar both during my campaign and in the effort to fix our struggling economy.”

Congressman Lamar Smith said, “Like many Americans, I believe the United States urgently needs to replace Barack Obama as president with a proven leader who will create jobs, reduce the nation’s debt and embrace traditional values. The Republican Party is fortunate to have many candidates who are well-qualified to do just that. Last May– three months before Governor Rick Perry announced his candidacy – I committed to supporting Mitt Romney. I support Mitt Romney because I believe that he has the specific skill set needed to turn around the economy: he has a conservative track record as a successful businessman and as a governor who created jobs, cut taxes, and kept spending low.”

Background on Congressman Lamar Smith:

Congressman Lamar Smith represents the 21st district in Texas. In the U.S. House, Smith serves as Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Prior to his election to Congress, Smith was a member of the Texas House of Representatives. He also was a practicing lawyer and rancher.

From The Hill:

Smith’s endorsement is another likely signal that Romney is gathering momentum on immigration and border security issues. Romney seemed to gain traction in his criticism of rival Perry’s stance on both, with Perry sliding in the polls under a heavy barrage of Romney’s criticism on his support as governor of extending in-state tuition rates to undocumented students who graduated from a Texas high school.

Romney Announces Gov Bob Ehrlich as Chairman and RNC Committeeman Louis Pope as Co-Chair of Maryland Campaign

Boston, MA – Mitt Romney announce[s] former Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich as Chairman of his Maryland campaign and RNC National Committeeman Louis Pope as Co-Chair.

“I am proud to have the support of Bob Ehrlich,” said Mitt Romney. “As Governor of Maryland, he oversaw a drop in unemployment, balanced the budget, and said ‘no’ to tax increases. He understands that President Obama’s over-spending has failed to get voters in Maryland and across the country back to work. I am glad to have Bob’s help in my efforts to put our economy on the path to recovery.”

“After studying all the candidates, it is clear that Republicans’ best chance for beating President Obama next November is Mitt Romney,” said former Governor Bob Ehrlich. “Mitt Romney is the only candidate with the necessary experience to turn around our failing economy. He has laid out a comprehensive economic plan that will restart the economy beginning day one. Republicans can’t afford to let President Obama have four more years to spend trillions of dollars, burden small businesses, and fail to create jobs.”

“Maryland voters are tired of the failures and excuses from this administration,” said National Committeeman Louis Pope. “They want a president who will make job creation his number one priority. Mitt Romney has worked in the private sector for 25 years and knows how jobs are created. He is the only candidate who will be able to fix the fiscal and economic mess that the next president will inherit.”

Background on Maryland Co-Chairs:

Bob Ehrlich served as Governor of Maryland from 2003 to 2007. Previously, he represented Maryland’s 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1995 to 2003. He also practiced law and served in the House of Delegates.

Louis Pope serves as Republican National Committeeman for Maryland. In 2006, Pope was selected by President George W. Bush to serve on the Small Business Administration’s National Advisory Council. He is the President and Owner of Century 21 Trademark Realty, Inc, based in Montgomery and Prince Georges County.

(emphasis added)

Members Of Mitt Romney’s Maryland Steering Committee:
• Former Maryland Republican Party First Vice Chair Chris Cavey
• Former Maryland Republican Party First Vice Chair Chuck Gast
• Former Maryland Republican Party Chairman Audrey Scott
• Howard County Republican Party Chairman Loretta Shields
• Former Howard County Republican Party Chairman Brian Harlin

Pope endorsed Governor Romney back on September 8th.