Romney campaigns in tightly divided Virginia

LYNCHBURG, Va. — Campaigning in this hotly contested battleground state for the third time in five days, Mitt Romney urged his supporters Monday to keep pushing until election day.

“I also want to thank many of you in this crowd that have been out there working on the campaign. Making calls from the victory centers, and by putting up a yard sign, in your neighbor’s yard,” he said, then chuckled. “And maybe convincing a co-worker to vote for Paul Ryan and me. And now, let’s make sure that we get everyone we know out to vote on Tuesday. Every single voter -- get ‘em out!”

Virginia is tightly split between Romney and President Obama, as shown by how much time both men and their surrogates are spending there. On the final day of the campaign, Romney is making two stops in the commonwealth out of five total. At the first, in Lynchburg, Romney’s sleek white campaign plane with “Believe in America” rolled up to a crowd of thousands waiting on the tarmac under a cloudless blue sky.

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“What a welcome, thank you, Lynchburg! What a great Virginia welcome! What a thrill it is to be here with so many folks. Gosh, the energy and passion,” he said as the crowd chanted his name.

He urged his supporters to reach out to those who are undecided, and said that his background and record shows that he offers the true change that Obama promised four years ago and failed to deliver.

“The question of the election comes down to this: Do you want four more years like the last four years or do you want real change? Now of course, President Obama promised change, he just couldn’t deliver it. I not only promise change, I have a record of achieving it,” Romney said, citing his work in business, on the Olympics and as governor of Massachusetts. “That’s why I’m running for president, I know how to change the nation, how to get it back on course, how to create jobs, how to get a balanced budget, how to get rising take home pay.”

The president failed, Romney said, because he pursued a partisan agenda such as healthcare reform instead of single-mindedly tackling the economy. He painted a dismal picture of what Washington would look like if Obama were reelected.

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“Now our choice tomorrow is going to lead to one of two very different outcomes. If the president were to be reelected he would still be unable,” Romney said. He paused as the crowd booed heartily. “I think you and I can agree on that here, but there may be some people watching who haven’t decided yet, so I’ll just note for them that if he were to get reelected, he will not be able to work with people in Congress. And I say that because he hasn’t been able to. He has ignored them, he’s attacked them, he’s blamed them. And by the way, if he can’t work with Congress, think what happens the next time the debt ceiling comes up. All right, there will be threats of shutdown and default. And what that means is the economy freezes and jobs aren’t created.”

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seema.mehta@latimes.com

Twitter: @LATSeema