Obama campaign joins GOP in turning focus to Pennsylvania

The GOP primary shifts toward a potential final showdown in Pennsylvania, and the Obama campaign is eager to insert itself into the fight.

Mitt Romney’s hold on the GOP nomination seems secure after victories in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Wisconsin primaries Tuesday. But Rick Santorum is rejecting calls to back out of the fight, promising a win in his home state would sustain him through another month of intra-party skirmishing.

But as was made clear by President Obama on Tuesday in a blistering speech against what he called the GOP “Trojan horse” budget, and Romney by extension, the general election title bout is ready to launch in earnest.

A new memo from the Obama campaign looks at not just the Republican Keystone State primary, but the landscape in that battleground state in November.

“As the Republican primary fight moves forward, the candidates competing for the nomination will continue their campaigns to take us backward,” national press secretary Ben LaBolt and Pennsylvania state director Bill Hyers write. “Romney and the rest of the field will pitch to Pennsylvanians the same failed policies and broken promises that created the economic crisis – and the same negative attacks and bankrupt ideas that have dampened voter enthusiasm and depressed turnout throughout this year’s Republican primary.”

The memo goes on to call Romney “hostile to manufacturing,” saying he “turned his back on auto workers” and “killed manufacturing jobs” when he was the governor of Massachusetts and as the head of Bain Capital.

It also attacks him for wanting to repeal healthcare reform, saying his “severely conservative policies would be devastating for women and seniors.

“The memo also details how the Obama campaign is already investing in Pennsylvania just as the GOP candidates step up their campaigns.

“We have been busy reaching out one-by-one to voters to discuss what is at stake in November. In fact, this evening we will open our 14th campaign office in Pennsylvania,” the memo states.

A Quinnipiac University poll released last week showed Obama narrowly leading Romney in a hypothetical general election matchup in Pennsylvania, 45% to 42%.

The state hasn’t supported a Republican in a presidential election since 1988, but has nonetheless been a battleground state every four years.

In addition to Pennsylvania’s primary, New York, Delaware, Rhode Island and Connecticut vote on April 24.
michael.memoli@latimes.com
twitter.com/mikememoli

Original source: Obama campaign joins GOP in turning focus to Pennsylvania