Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney announced he was taking a new approach to his campaign Monday, focusing on a broader swath of issues than the economy - including President Obama's foreign policy credentials. But Romney's momentum lasted only a day before a video was leaked online showing the former Massachusetts governor labeling the 47 percent of Americans who receive some form of federal assistance as "dependent upon the government."
"My job is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them that they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives," Romney said in the video. The video also showed Romney telling the donors - who each paid $50,000 to attend the fundraiser - that Palestinians have "no interest whatsoever in establishing peace and that the pathway to peace is almost unthinkable to accomplish."
His words spawned a firestorm of controversy, derailing Romney's attempts to focus the election on what he sees as Obama's failures as president.
Romney defended himself in a press conference, saying his remarks were taken out of context in the initial video but conceding that he expressed his views "inelegantly." His supporters have argued that the missing tape indicates the remarks have been doctored to make the candidate look bad in the eyes of the electorate. An extended version of the almost hour-long speech was made public yesterday, but the tape is still missing a minute or two of Romney's speech.
Obama, the Democratic Party's nominee, criticized Romney's remarks Tuesday night. "My expectation is that if you want to be president, you have to work for everyone, not just for some," he said.
U.S. Senate
Rhode Island's race for U.S. Senate is heating up as Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., battles to defend his seat against Republican challenger Barry Hinckley Jr. The race, like many others this election cycle, has centered on the Democratic Party's approach to the floundering economy.
Whitehouse's election has long appeared sealed, but recently Nate Silver, political analyst for the New York Times, listed the seat as one the Republicans might be able to win if they commit the necessary funds to the race. Silver argued that though Rhode Island traditionally elects Democrats, the state has a penchant for Independents and moderate Republicans due to its high volume of swing voters. He wrote that if Hinckley can persuade the Independents - who elected Gov. Lincoln Chafee '75 P'14 P'16 to the Senate in 1998 as a Republican and in 2010 to the governorship as an Independent - that he is a centrist, autonomous from the Republican leadership in Washington, he might be able to pull off an upset.
U.S. House of Representatives
In the race to represent Rhode Island's first congressional district, Rep. David Cicilline '83 and his Republican opponent Brendan Doherty, former colonel of the Rhode Island State Police and superintendent of the Department of Public Safety, have begun an aggressive general election race. Doherty recently brought to light an incident when Cicilline, as chairman of the Providence Economic Development Partnership, provided one of his campaign workers with a $103,000 loan that the employee never repaid. Cicilline's campaign initially said the worker had repaid the loan in full, but PolitiFact Rhode Island, a non-partisan organization that rates statements from politicians as true or false, clarified that the employee had not reimbursed the state.
Doherty revealed his opponent's connection to the deal when he published a "top ten list of David Cicilline's most serious deceptions." In the list, Doherty continued his assault on Cicilline's comments as Providence mayor from 2010 when he said the city was in "excellent" fiscal condition. Cicilline has since said his view of the city's condition was "overly optimistic," an assessment confirmed by the $110 million structural deficit that Mayor Angel Taveras announced upon taking office.
R.I. House of Representatives
The Rhode Island Board of Elections has finalized the last outstanding race from last week's primary elections, announcing that Rep. William San Bento Jr., D-Pawtucket and North Providence, won District 58's Democratic primary by one vote. After the first tally, the race was close enough for a judge to grant challenger Carlos Tobon's request for a recount. One recount gave Bento a one-vote margin of victory, another put him up by two and a third showed the race in a dead heat.
The unusually close vote caused havoc for state officials, who spent much of Monday searching for a mail-in-ballot that was allegedly not counted.
Bento will not face an opponent in November's general election, virtually assuring his return to the State House.
