By KASIE HUNT
Associated Press
MORRISVILLE, Pa. (AP) -
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney rallied thousands of
people in the Pennsylvania cold Sunday night, using precious time to
make an 11th-hour pitch for a state he all but ignored until the last
week of the presidential campaign.
"The people of America
understand we're taking back the White House because we're going to win
Pennsylvania," Romney said as he looked over the expansive, darkened
field at a farm in the Philadelphia suburbs, where people had been
waiting for nearly two hours longer than planned in temperatures that
dropped near freezing.
"Send him home! Send him home!" the crowd chanted in response, urging him to beat President Barack Obama.
Romney has visited
Pennsylvania during the general election campaign, but has held only
small events usually connected to a separate fundraising stop. Coming
here two days before the election was, in fact, a game-time decision.
Until the election's final
week, Romney's team had not made any significant push to win in a state
that's backed Democratic presidential candidates since 1988. Its 20
electoral votes were all but written off, its airwaves free from the
deluge of ads that have swamped the nine states that were contested.
It's part of a bid to find
the 270 votes Romney needs to win the White House. Polls are stubbornly
close in neighboring Ohio, and Romney's path to victory without that
state's 18 electoral college votes requires winning nearly all the other
battleground states.
So on Tuesday, a week
before the election, Romney bought $2 million in TV ads in Pennsylvania.
Republican groups poured in an additional $9 million. On Thursday,
campaign managers quietly began calling places they thought would be big
enough to hold the kind of crowd that could demonstrate the state was
really in play. They eventually picked Shady Brook Farm, judging that a
20-acre field could be turned into a campaign event site that would
accommodate up to 30,000 people.
The Obama campaign insists
the move is desperation. Republicans acknowledge that decisions to buy
ads in Pennsylvania were made, in part, because millions of dollars were
still available - and airtime in other swing states had simply run out,
already filled with political ads.
But former President Bill
Clinton - now arguably Obama's most important advocate - will spend all
day there Monday, even visiting Vice President Joe Biden's hometown of
Scranton. Obama and Democrats planned to spend more than $3.7 million on
TV ads.
On Sunday night, Romney
campaign spokesman Rick Gorka said 25,000 people went through security
at the Morrisville event. No independent crowd estimate was available.
"This has got to be a
thrill of a lifetime. This is amazing. What a welcome," said Ann Romney
as she introduced her husband, with the enormous Romney-logoed campaign
bus puffing in the background.
"I just hope they come back
and buy Bucks County produce," joked Paul Fleming, the farm's owner, as
he waited in the bleachers erected next to giant flags hanging from
cranes.
Many in the crowd, though,
didn't stay to hear Romney's speech. Attendees streamed out of the event
even as the Republican nominee spoke - he had been delayed for more
than an hour and a half at his previous stop, in Cleveland, leaving the
thousands in Pennsylvania to wait for his campaign bus to arrive.
After Romney arrived, a
Secret Service agent, concerned about security, prevented people from
leaving the event, cordoned off by metal security barriers. Attendees
complained of needing to use restrooms; one was concerned about a child
who had gotten too cold.
Once Romney campaign
staffers were informed, volunteers began escorting small groups of
people out. Agents insisted that they not be allowed to leave en masse.
More people wanted to leave than could be quickly accommodated.
"I feel like I've been let out of jail," said one man as he walked away from the barriers.
Pennsylvania is a state
that's proved difficult for Republicans. Registered Democrats outnumber
Republicans 4-3. Despite trying, no Republican presidential candidate
has won the state since 1988. The closest was in 2004, when President
George W. Bush came up 2.5 percentage points short of John Kerry.
Romney's push comes as
neighboring New Jersey has been crushed by Superstorm Sandy, and
Republican Gov. Chris Christie has embraced Obama and the millions in
federal emergency relief the state will need to recover. Eastern
Pennsylvania voters, who often can watch local news from either
Philadelphia or New York, have recently been treated to images of the
president shouldering his duties as commander in chief and comforting
families who have lost everything.
Romney was clearly aware of that reality as he campaigned in a town just a few miles from the Jersey border.
"Thanks also to the
governors that are dealing with this tragedy, particularly the governor
of New Jersey, Gov. Christie," Romney said Sunday, some of his only
recent words of praise for a man he considered picking for his running
mate. "He's giving it all of his heart and his passion to help the
people of his state. They're in a hard way, and we appreciate his hard
work."
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2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
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