Romney takes "feel-your-pain" tone as Sandy slams East Coast

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney speaks at a campaign rally in Davenport, Iowa October 29, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Brian Snyder

By Steve Holland

DAVENPORT, Iowa | Mon Oct 29, 2012 8:16pm EDT

DAVENPORT, Iowa (Reuters) - Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was about to go on stage in Ohio on Monday when he decided to abruptly shift the tone of his campaign given the potentially lethal impact of Hurricane Sandy on the East Coast.

With the storm bearing down, Romney canceled campaign events scheduled for Monday and Tuesday in Wisconsin, Iowa and Florida. Running mate Paul Ryan and Romney's wife, Ann, also stepped back from campaigning.

Romney instead adopted a feel-your-pain stance, taking time to talk up Americans' hardy can-do spirit in the face of uncertain odds. He urged people to donate to the Red Cross.

After deliberating by conference call with senior advisers - some of them traveling with Ryan and Ann Romney in several states - it was an easy call to make, aides said.

"We canceled the events out of sensitivity for the millions of people facing hardship because of the hurricane," said senior adviser Eric Fehrnstrom.

The hurricane was the latest twist in Romney's second White House bid. Before taking on President Barack Obama in the general election campaign, Romney spent months in a bruising Republican primary fight in which he was rarely in the lead until near the end.

The former governor of Massachusetts appeared to have the momentum in the final lap of the presidential race, climbing in polls after recovering from the September release of a secretly recorded video in which he said 47 percent of Americans were dependent on government help.

A NEW TWIST

Now, Romney's campaign luster is likely to dim for a couple of days as Obama wins media attention as the nation's chief executive managing a crisis.

The Republican's aides said they had little choice but to put off campaigning given the storm's potential impact. They did not think Sandy would complicate the campaign's messaging over the next few days.

"I don't think it will at all," said a senior adviser. "While this is certainly important, the potential damage of this hurricane, the importance of the next four years are about bigger things longer term - the economy and jobs."

Aides said the campaign had been watching the storm since it first came into view last week and knew they had to act.

"We monitored the track and developments closely and adjusted our schedule accordingly as the need arose," said senior adviser Kevin Madden.

The hurricane forced the Romney campaign into some fancy footwork.

He had hoped to hold a campaign event on Tuesday in Wisconsin, which has not been won by a Republican presidential candidate in decades. It would back up the Romney camp's narrative that the Midwestern state is now in play given tightening polls there.

But with the storm blasting ashore along the East Coast, Romney made plans to go back to Ohio, the must-win state where he and Obama have been concentrating much of their energies.

In a move that gives him the appearance of being presidential, Romney told supporters he consulted with officials at the National Weather Service and at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He got an update on the progress of the storm, the status of the federal government's efforts to help state and local authorities and potential challenges in the hours and days ahead.

In Avon Lake, Ohio, Romney toned down some of his attacks on Obama and urged Americans to come together.

"We've faced these kinds of challenges before, and as we have, it's interesting how Americans come together, and this looks like another time when we need to come together all across the country," he said.

(Editing by Alistair Bell and Philip Barbara)

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Biden, Clinton pick up campaign mantle for storm-hit Obama

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden speaks at the 30th Street Station in Philadelphia, February 8, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/Larry Downing

By Lisa Lambert

COLUMBUS, Ohio | Mon Oct 29, 2012 9:02pm EDT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) - Pulled back to Washington to address the storm pounding the East Coast just days before the presidential election, President Barack Obama passed his campaign banner on Monday to Vice President Joe Biden and the man he has anointed his "Secretary of Explaining Stuff," former President Bill Clinton.

Biden and Clinton joined forces at a rally in the key battleground state of Ohio, where they sought to keep alive the Obama campaign strategy of combining rallies and other personal contact with a push for early voting by Democrats ahead of the November 6 election.

Obama cut short a campaign trip to Florida to deal with Hurricane Sandy, threatening much of the East Coast.

"We went to Florida last night and he got up this morning and called me and said, ‘I gotta go back right now. This storm is getting out of hand, I gotta handle it,'" Clinton told the crowd of 4,800 at the Covelli Centre, an ice rink in Youngstown. "And I said 'Mr. President that is the right call'."

Clinton evoked Obama through stories and jokes, personalizing the president while running through a list of arguments against Republican candidate Mitt Romney. Clinton joked that the audience was "stuck" with him because his wife, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, "has one of the two jobs in the government that doesn't permit you to be in politics."

Ohio is one of the "epicenters" of the election, according to Biden, and both Obama and Romney had planned on blanketing the state in the final days leading up to the election.

"If we win Ohio, we win this election," Biden said. pressing supporters to get out to vote.

Romney has caught up with Obama in national opinion polls and gained ground against the Democrat in surveys in Ohio too. A Rasmussen poll on Monday showed the former Massachusetts governor ahead by 50 percent to 48 percent.

The Republican also canceled campaign events on Monday night and Tuesday in Milwaukee, Iowa and Florida out of respect for the tens of millions in danger from Sandy.

The Democrats are sparing no effort to get people to the polls before election day, and many of their events in Ohio are targeted at building enthusiasm for early voting. According to Gallup, 15 percent of Obama's supporters have already voted and 33 percent intent to vote early, compared with 17 percent of Romney voters who have voted and 34 percent planning to vote.

Even though Biden dropped in on campaign offices and delivered a rousing speech in Ohio, he could not completely escape the reach of the storm and had to cancel events scheduled there for Tuesday.

Marilyn Ettinger, an Ohio woman standing inside the Covelli Centre as hail pounded outside, said she had already voted, but was worried that the storm would prevent others from doing the same. She had driven an hour for the event.

Ettinger said she had already missed seeing Obama at another event, in Cleveland, due to weather and was disappointed he would not be in Youngstown. "But the last time I saw Clinton was the last day before he won his second term, so I'm hoping that today I bring good luck to Obama."

(Editing By Alistair Bell and Sandra Maler)

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Control of Senate may hinge on Ohio race

1 of 3. Democratic U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (C) talks to workers at a campaign event in Columbus, Ohio, October 24, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Nick Carey

By Nick Carey

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio | Mon Oct 29, 2012 3:46pm EDT

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (Reuters) - Ohio's Senate race has become one of the most expensive in the country in the 2012 election campaign, as money pours into the state to help a young Republican challenger come within striking distance of Democratic incumbent Sherrod Brown.

Ohio, a key prize in the race for the White House, also could decide which party controls the U.S. Senate.

Republicans need a net gain of four seats to have an outright majority in the Senate, and would have effective control with a gain of three seats if presidential candidate Mitt Romney and his running mate, Paul Ryan, are elected.

Much of the $27 million in outside money flowing into Ohio has come from conservative and business interest groups seeking to elect Josh Mandel, the 35-year-old state treasurer dubbed the "boy wonder" by Republican Governor John Kasich.

"The outside money has enabled Josh Mandel to run a competitive race," said Grant Neeley, a political science professor at the University of Dayton. "He didn't have name recognition before. The political ads have allowed him to build that name recognition and get his name out there."

Recent polls show Mandel gaining ground but still an average of 5.2 percentage points behind Brown, 59, a gravelly-voiced senator first elected in 2006 and who has touted his backing for the 2008 auto bailout.

Ohio has the second largest auto industry presence after Michigan, supporting an estimated 850,000 jobs.

Mandel, a Marine veteran who began his Senate run three months after taking office in 2011, is getting strong support from the fiscally conservative Tea Party movement, which was a major force in the 2010 congressional elections.

"I would vote for you for president," Edward Ryan, who teaches criminal investigation and police science, told Mandel during the candidate's recent visit to a vocational college in Chillicothe in southern Ohio.

"I like that Mandel is fiscally responsible and not afraid to call out either side over spending," Ryan said afterward.

Brown, for his part, is getting support from organized labor, partly due to the auto bailout issue.

"Ohioans are common-sense people who vote with their paychecks, so I think they'll back Sherrod," Dorsey Hager, a union member, said at a Brown campaign event last week.

Although Ohio's 7 percent unemployment rate is below the national rate of 7.8 percent, the health of the state's economy is a top issue for voters here, Neeley said.

"Unemployment has come down, it's still a big deal for Ohioans to talk about the economy," he said. "And how Ohioans view the economy will matter on election day."

INFLUX OF CASH

Mandel's political career began while he was still in the Marines, where he served two tours in Iraq. Serving first as a councilman in Lyndhurst, a Cleveland suburb, from 2003 and then as a state representative from 2006, before campaigning extensively for state treasurer in 2010.

Brian Rothenberg, executive director of the left-leaning non-profit group ProgressOhio, has known Mandel for years and says he started out as a moderate before moving to the right.

Mandel's major supporters include Republican strategist Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS, which has spent $4.6 million on advertising in the race, plus the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has spent $4.3 million and the National Federation of Independent Business ($1 million), according to federal regulatory filings.

Conservatives see Brown as far too liberal, which adds to the appeal of unseating him.

On the other side, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has spent $3.4 million backing Brown, while Majority PAC has spent $3.1 million in his behalf and the Service Employees International Union has spent $750,000.

Separately, Brown has raised more than $16.5 million and Mandel has raised more than $14.5 million.

Michael McTeague, a political scientist at Ohio University, said that Mandel's youth may be a disadvantage, while the feeling that the Obama administration has been waging a "war on coal" is a negative for Brown in coal-rich southeastern Ohio.

Cities like Cleveland and Columbus favor Brown, while Mandel appears to be strong in rural areas.

"People around here realize it's not enough just to send Mitt (Romney) to Washington because we need a conservative Senate too," said Geoffrey Phillips, the Republican treasurer in Clinton County in southern Ohio, who attended a Mandel event last week. "Voters here know that if you send Mitt, you've got to send Josh too."

(Reporting By Nick Carey; Editing by Paul Simao)

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Obama's allure fades among venture capitalists

U.S. President Barack Obama pauses as he delivers a statement on the Hurricane Sandy situation from the press briefing room of the White House in Washington, October 29, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Jason Reed

By Sarah McBride

SAN FRANCISCO | Mon Oct 29, 2012 3:50pm EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Venture capitalists are proving a less reliable source of cash for President Barack Obama during this election, according to fundraising data, even though he has raised a record amount of cash overall.

Through September 30, Obama collected $552,758 from these deep-pocketed investors who provide startup money to firms, less than half his total through that time in 2008.

Romney has raised $860,827 from venture capitalists, an indication of his support amongst the investment community in the neck-and-neck race, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.

Most of the venture capitalists who gave to Obama last election but not this year did not comment for this article, making it hard to know their exact reasoning. Generally speaking, many venture capitalists say they are disappointed with Obama's support of technology.

And this time, Obama is up against a candidate with years running private-equity firm Bain Capital.

"He completely understands what it's like to be in business, which makes him very attractive to people like me," said Marc Andreessen, co-founder of venture-capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, on CNBC earlier this year, to explain his switch in allegiance to Romney.

Andreessen, who backed Obama four years ago, has given $5,000 each to Romney and his vice presidential nominee, Paul Ryan; $100,000 to the pro-Romney group Restore Our Future; and tens of thousands to other Republican candidates and groups. Records show no donations to Obama. A spokeswoman for Andreessen declined to comment.

Bob Nelsen, co-founder of Arch Venture Partners in Seattle, said he switched from supporting Obama financially in 2008 to supporting Romney in 2012 because his primary loyalty is not to any one politician. Instead, it is to the technology economy, which he wishes the administration had supported more.

"The first time around there was a lot of emotion and hope, and now it's a lot about rationality and deeds," he said. "Show me the deeds, show me the leadership." He has given a total of $5000 to Romney.

Though Romney is handily beating Obama in venture capitalist fundraising, the two candidates are running a close race in terms of overall cash gathered.

Obama's campaign and allied Democratic Party organizations have raised about $988 million over the course of the campaign. The Romney campaign and related Republican party organizations have raised $919.4 million.

Raising Romney's appeal with venture capitalists may be his support for capping the U.S. capital-gains tax on investment income at 15 percent. Obama wants to raise it for wealthier taxpayers.

Obama also wants to eliminate a tax break many venture capitalists benefit from known as the carried-interest tax break. That break affects taxes on their share of the profits from their investments, known as carried interest. Venture capitalists pay the capital-gains rate on carried interest instead of income taxes, which would typically be higher.

Individually, several prominent venture capitalists who gave to the Obama campaign in the 2008 cycle seem to have taken a pass this time, with their names not appearing on lists of donors made available by the Federal Elections Commission.

Names in that category include Accel Partners' Jim Breyer, a noted early Facebook backer; Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers' Ted Schlein, who backed Jive Software; and the Foundry Group's Brad Feld, co-founder of start-up program TechStars. Bryer, Feld and Schlein did not respond to emailed requests for comment.

Last time, Obama's VC donations totalled $1.2 million while challenger John McCain's totalled $574,250. Comparisons with that race are not clear cut because McCain accepted public financing. That limits the types of contributions a candidate can take.

The industry's money moves may not all come down to the issues, said Mark Heesen, head of the National Venture Capital Association. He believes that by their nature, venture capitalists constantly think about disrupting the status quo.

"Your mindset is to look at the challenger as opposed to the incumbent," he said. "That is ingrained in a venture capitalist."

(Reporting By Sarah McBride. Editing by Karey Wutkowski, Jonathan Weber and Andrew Hay)

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Obama, Romney virtually tied eight days before U.S. election

1 of 11. U.S. President Barack Obama jogs into a campaign rally in Las Vegas, Nevada October 24, 2012. Obama is on a two-day, eight state, campaign swing.

Credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque

WASHINGTON | Mon Oct 29, 2012 12:51pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney were virtually tied in a Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll released on Monday, with the Democrat leading by a single percentage point eight days before the November 6 U.S. presidential election.

Obama leads Romney 48 percent to 47 percent, a 1 percentage point drop for Obama and 1 percentage point rise for Romney from Sunday's tracking poll - still within the daily online survey's 3.9 percentage point credibility interval for likely voters.

"This is all movement around the middle," said Ipsos pollster Julia Clark. "It basically underlines the closeness of the race. I don't think it's going to be too different until the election."

The poll showed that 22 percent of registered voters said they had taken part in early or absentee voting. Among that group, 58 percent said they voted for Obama and 39 percent said they voted for Romney.

The precision of Reuters/Ipsos online polls is measured using a credibility interval. Among the 806 likely voters surveyed, the credibility interval is plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.

(Reporting by Deborah Charles; Editing by Alistair Bell and Will Dunham)

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Sandy complicates final stretch of tense U.S. presidential race

1 of 2. U.S. President Barack Obama delivers a statement on the Hurricane Sandy situation from the press briefing room of the White House in Washington, October 29, 2012. Obama suspended campaign stops on Monday and returned to Washington to monitor the impact of Hurricane Sandy, while Republican challenger Mitt Romney dropped some events as well to show respect to the storm's potential victims.

Credit: Reuters/Jason Reed

By John Whitesides and Patricia Zengerle

WASHINGTON | Tue Oct 30, 2012 12:05am EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A tense and unpredictable race for the White House became even more so on Monday, as mammoth storm Sandy created delicate political challenges for President Barack Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney and raised the possibility of a chaotic voting process.

As the deadly storm barreled ashore on the paralyzed East Coast, the presidential campaign went into what amounted to a deep freeze just when Obama and Romney had planned to launch their final push for votes in the November 6 election.

Suddenly, the final eight days of what has been a bitter fight for the hearts of voters in a politically divided electorate has become a test of crisis leadership for Obama - and a time when harsh political rhetoric seems out of line.

Both sides promised to put aside politics to deal with the fallout from the storm. But privately, they fretted about the storm's potential impact on a week of candidate appearances and door-to-door campaigning by volunteers that is so crucial in get-out-the-vote efforts.

There also is concern about the impact on early voting - a priority for both campaigns but especially Obama's - and Election Day itself, if predictions that millions of people and their polling precincts could be without power well into next week come true.

"It's a totally unpredictable situation that can play out in many different ways, with risks and rewards for both candidates - which is exactly why political consultants on both sides are very scared right now," said Julian Zelizer, a historian at Princeton University in New Jersey.

The crisis gives Obama, who as president is chiefly responsible for the government's response to the storm, an opportunity to show the presidential leadership that Romney frequently accuses him of lacking.

If Obama is seen as falling short, the memory of the political damage suffered by then President George W. Bush and his Republicans over the government's botched response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005 is a haunting reminder of the consequences.

On the other hand, a strong effort by Obama's White House in responding to the storm could provide a positive, lasting image to Americans as they head to the polls next week - assuming polling places will have power and be open.

Obama canceled campaign rallies planned for Monday and Tuesday and returned to the White House from Florida to meet with federal emergency officials.

Romney's team, after initially making plans to continue campaigning, apparently reconsidered and announced late Monday morning that the former Massachusetts governor would cancel a rally in Wisconsin on Monday night, and its schedule on Tuesday as well.

Romney joined Obama in appealing for donations to the Red Cross and offered sympathy for those in the storm's path.

For Romney, the hurricane threatens to sideline him for precious days in the campaign's final week, disrupting his efforts to cast himself as the candidate with momentum in the presidential race.

It also forces the Republican challenger to walk a fine line when considering whether to launch political attacks against Obama as the president deals with a crisis.

And if the government's response to the storm is broadly deemed a success, it could be a stark reminder that Romney has advocated dramatically cutting back funding for federal relief agencies, saying that such duties should be shifted to the states or perhaps the private sector.

"This throws a monkey wrench into the campaign for both sides," Republican strategist Ford O'Connell said. "Nobody wants to look political in the middle of a crisis."

Without official duties to carry out, Romney could be relegated to visiting local relief centers while trying not to hinder rescue workers. Romney's running mate, Wisconsin congressman Paul Ryan, told supporters at a Florida rally on Monday that the campaign would turn its attention to helping those affected by the storm.

In contrast, Obama can use the full power of the presidency to issue directives and announcements, and play the role of sympathizer-in-chief - as he did on Monday, when he appeared in the White House briefing room to announce storm preparations and urge those in Sandy's path to take cover.

"I'm not worried at this point about the impact on the election," Obama said in response to a reporter's question about the campaign. "I'm worried about the impact on families, and I'm worried about our first responders."

STATES OVERSEE ELECTIONS

The storm already has disrupted early voting in several states - including Virginia, one of eight or so key battleground states in the presidential race.

But as the scope of the potential damage from Sandy became clear on Monday, there was speculation over whether Election Day voting could be affected, and whether voting might be prolonged to allow people to get to the polls.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator Craig Fugate said there could be a lingering effect on Election Day, and he promised the agency would help any state requesting it. He said FEMA was examining how much it can pay to help rebuild any polling stations destroyed in the storm.

It would take an act of Congress to change the election from its legally prescribed date: the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.

But because the details of carrying out U.S. elections are left to the states, any decisions on whether to extend voting hours for the election would more likely be made on a state-by-state basis.

That creates the potential for uneven responses to any disruption in voting - and the possibility that state politics could affect such decisions.

For example, one state could extend voting hours on November 6 to make it easier for people to reach the polls and offer more options for early voting or voting by mail to ensure that every eligible voter could cast a ballot.

But another could stick to the same hours, even if it means many residents could not cast ballots.

Sandy's impact could be greater in rural areas, where Romney generally is more popular than Obama. Power typically is restored more quickly in cities, urban roads are less likely to stay blocked by flooding or downed trees and residents are more likely to be able to walk to their polling places.

In theory, a state could bypass the public altogether and have its legislature choose the "electors" who decide who the state will back for president. The U.S. Constitution does not mandate that electors are chosen by popular vote.

A Democrat-controlled state, such as Massachusetts or Maryland, could pick electors to support Obama.

But a state's Republican-controlled legislature - such as in Ohio or in Virginia, where Governor Bob McDonnell is co-chairman of Romney's campaign - could ensure its votes went to Romney.

This scenario worries some Democrats, who note that Florida, which decided the bitterly contested 2000 election, was governed by Jeb Bush, brother of Republican George W. Bush, who won the presidential race despite losing the popular vote by half a million votes.

A "SLAP IN THE FACE"?

It is unclear how enthusiastic many Americans along the East Coast will be about voting after dealing with the storm and its fallout for more than a week before Election Day.

Obama's handling of the storm could inspire or anger some voters, but some analysts said voters might be in a foul mood regardless of the president's performance.

The storm "could be a slap in the face that adds to a depressed feeling," Zelizer said. "Obama wants to end this campaign on brighter images of the economy doing well, not on images of people suffering and struggling."

Fergus Cullen, a former Republican state chairman in New Hampshire, played down the hurricane's potential impact on the election.

"If anything, this will give both campaigns a little breather," Cullen said. "I don't think the response to the storm is going to change many minds at this point."

(Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell, Steve Holland and Mark Felsenthal; Editing by David Lindsey, Jim Loney and Robert Birsel)

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Obama, Romney curtail campaign events in face of hurricane

1 of 9. U.S. President Barack Obama walks to the Oval Office of the White House upon his return to Washington, October 29, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Jason Reed

By Jeff Mason and Steve Holland

WASHINGTON/DAVENPORT, Iowa | Mon Oct 29, 2012 7:09pm EDT

WASHINGTON/DAVENPORT, Iowa (Reuters) - President Barack Obama suspended campaigning and returned to Washington on Monday to oversee the response to Hurricane Sandy, while his Republican rival Mitt Romney curtailed political events to show respect for the storm's potential victims.

As the storm cuts into the final week of campaigning in an especially close race for the White House, both men are trying to avoid coming across as overtly political while millions of people are imperiled by Sandy's fierce winds and driving rain.

Obama and Romney are virtually tied in the presidential contest, according to a Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll released on Monday. It showed the Democrat leading by a single percentage point eight days before Election Day.

With the hurricane dominating headlines, Obama used the bully pulpit of the White House briefing room to show he was on top of the storm response effort.

He warned Americans in Sandy's path that it could take a long time before power was restored and transportation systems were running again, and he dismissed concerns of the storm's effects on the election.

"I am not worried at this point about the impact on the election. I'm worried about the impact on families, and I'm worried about the impact on our first responders. I'm worried about the impact on our economy and on transportation," Obama told reporters.

"The election will take care of itself next week. Right now our number one priority is to make sure that we are saving lives."

Obama returned to Washington after cutting short a trip to Orlando, Florida, where he had been due to appear at a rally with former President Bill Clinton.

Romney said he was in touch with federal emergency management workers about the storm.

"The damage will probably be significant and, of course, a lot of people will be out of power for a long time," he said in Davenport, Iowa. "So hopefully your thoughts and prayers will join with mine and people across the country as you think about those folks that are in harm's way," he said, urging supporters to donate to the American Red Cross.

Romney canceled further events in Wisconsin on Monday night and in Iowa and Florida on Tuesday. Those states are out of Sandy's path, but the former Massachusetts governor does not want to be seen to be focusing only on the campaign in the midst of potential national disaster.

"Governor Romney believes this is a time for the nation and its leaders to come together to focus on those Americans who are in harm's way," said Romney communications director Gail Gitcho.

SWING STATE BATTLE

Ohio is one of a handful of political swing states that will determine the winner of the November 6 election, and both candidates have spent many days campaigning there.

Obama has held a consistent, if narrow, lead in the state, and his advisers believe his support of the U.S. auto bailout will put him over the top there. Ohio is home to the nation's second largest auto industry.

But a Rasmussen Reports daily tracking poll showed Romney ahead on Monday, getting support from 50 percent of likely voters compared to 48 percent who backed the president.

Clinton, who has been a popular surrogate for Obama, continued to hold events he was to have held with the president, both in Florida and in Ohio, where he joined Vice President Joe Biden on a campaign swing.

"I support Barack Obama because I think he's got a better jobs plan and a better jobs record, a better budget plan, a better education plan, a better healthcare plan than his opponent," Clinton told a cheering crowd in Youngstown, Ohio.

Romney's running mate, Congressman Paul Ryan, campaigned in Florida, telling a crowd of 2,300 in Fernandina Beach that the Romney campaign would be turning its attention to helping people affected by the storm.

"We're staying in touch with regional leaders. We're offering assistance. We are collecting storm relief and supplies in our field offices in Virginia and Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, up and down the Eastern Seaboard," Ryan said.

Obama officials said the president's campaign schedule would be determined on a day-to-day basis. He scrapped another event scheduled for Tuesday in Green Bay, Wisconsin, and would remain at the White House, aides said.

Obama delivered pizzas to a local campaign office in Florida on Sunday night and told volunteers that the burden would increase for them because he would have to curtail his campaign activities there in coming days.

Florida, Wisconsin and Iowa also are critical swing states in the election, along with Colorado, Nevada, New Hampshire and Virginia.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Sam Jacobs, and Lisa Lambert; Editing by Alistair Bell and Paul Simao)

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Could blueberry state Maine be a slice of Romney's presidential pie?

By Andy Sullivan

Tue Oct 30, 2012 1:34am EDT

n">(Reuters) - Supporters of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney are scouting an unlikely path to the White House through the vast forests and blueberry barrens of northern Maine.

President Barack Obama is expected to win the Pine Tree State easily in the November 6 election.

Regardless, Romney allies are buying TV time with the hope of carrying the state's thinly populated interior and scraping out one electoral college vote in Maine that could edge their man closer to the 270 needed to win the White House.

With polls showing a dead heat nationally, Republicans in the state are focusing their phone calls and door-knocking efforts on the rural north of Maine -- one of two states that play by a different set of rules in presidential elections.

Most states give all of their electoral votes to the winner, but Maine and Nebraska award one electoral vote to the winners of each of their congressional districts, two in Maine and three in Nebraska.

The candidate who takes the statewide vote -- very likely to be Obama in Maine -- receives an additional two electoral votes, meaning there are a total of four up for grabs in Maine.

Although winning just one electoral vote in northern Maine is still a longshot, Maine Republicans are optimistic about Romney's chances. They point to a private poll that found Romney leading Obama by 5 percentage points in the northern part of the state earlier this month, even though he trailed Obama in the state as a whole.

Mark Brewer, a political science professor at the University of Maine, said it was possible, if not likely, that Romney could win half the state.

"There's not a lot going on on the ground that would lead you to believe he could do this," Brewer said. "But who knows? Polling is pretty sparse up here."

Republicans certainly think it's possible. "I think it's very likely that he'll win," said David Sorensen, a spokesman for the state Republican party.

The odds seem stacked against Romney, though. Maine has never split its electoral votes and it hasn't voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1988. A series of polls in September showed Obama leading Romney by double-digit margins statewide.

A bruising, months-long battle within the state party between Romney supporters and backers of libertarian-leaning candidate Ron Paul has also prompted many Republican activists to stay on the sidelines this fall.

"I think Romney will do well, but if they had welcomed the Ron Paul people instead of alienating them like they did it would probably be a sure thing," said Republican activist Chris Dixon, a Paul supporter.

TWO MAINES

While aides highlight efforts to expand the race into states once thought safe for Obama, like Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Maine hasn't really been on the Romney campaign's radar so far.

Romney himself owns a home in neighboring New Hampshire, and his campaign is based in Boston, an hour's drive from the Maine border. But he hasn't visited the state since last winter.

The election highlights the gulf between what residents call the "Two Maines" -- the relatively affluent southern coast and the rest of the state, where opportunities have dwindled amid cutbacks in logging, potato farming and fish canning.

Regional disparities like this normally do not matter in the context of presidential politics because most states award their electoral votes on an all-or-nothing basis.

Obama picked up an additional electoral vote this way in 2008 when he won one congressional district in Nebraska.

Nebraska is not expected to split its votes this year, but Romney's allies seem to like the odds in Maine.

Restore Our Future, an outside group supporting the former Massachusetts governor, spent $300,000 on television advertising in the northern half of the state last week, and plans to spend $490,000 across the state in the final week before the election.

The ads running in the Portland television market reach voters in New Hampshire, but those running in Bangor and Presque Isle are aimed squarely at voters in Maine's second congressional district, which encompasses the state's less affluent half.

Maine Republicans say they are focusing their get-out-the-vote efforts on the second district, and they hope the burst of energy can help them unseat Michael Michaud, the Democrat who represents the region in Congress.

Democrats scoff at this, pointing to their own private polling that shows Obama and Michaud leading handily. The Romney campaign would have a more visible presence in the state if they thought they had a chance, they say.

"We don't see any evidence that this Romney 'head fake' has any basis in reality," said Ben Grant, the state Democratic Party chairman.

(Additional reporting by Alina Selyukh; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Paul Tait)

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As election, Sandy draw near, pressure mounts on disaster chief

U.S. President Barack Obama, seated with Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Administrator William Craig Fugate (R), urges Americans to take safety measures after a briefing about Hurricane Sandy, as it threatens the East Coast, at FEMA headquarters in Washington, October 28, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst

By Mark Felsenthal

WASHINGTON | Mon Oct 29, 2012 5:55pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As Hurricane Sandy bears down on the U.S. East Coast little more than a week before the presidential election, President Barack Obama's fortunes may in part depend on how well a former volunteer firefighter from Florida does his job.

Craig Fugate, a former paramedic and firefighter who rose to become Florida's top emergency management official, heads the Federal Emergency Management Agency and is the man Obama is counting on to bring relief quickly to millions of people expected to be hit by monster storm Sandy.

With the presidential election at hand and closely fought, the stakes are high for Obama to avoid an embarrassment like former President George W. Bush's botched reaction to Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

Much of the pressure is on Fugate, who has earned high marks for his quick and effective response to recent storms. That includes Hurricane Isaac in August, the deadly May 2011 tornadoes that struck Joplin, Missouri, and Hurricane Irene, which lashed the east coast in August 2011.

Fugate, 53, was one of the few people Obama consulted in the White House Situation Room Monday morning for an update on the hurricane's movements and federal response efforts, the White House said.

After the meeting with Fugate and a handful of other officials, Obama delivered a statement from the White House, pleading for patience from the American public but also pledging that his administration will have emergency relief in place - a task that Fugate will have to carry out.

"I'm confident that we're ready, but I think the public needs to prepare for the fact that this is going to take a long time for us to clean up," Obama said.

Obama switched from campaign mode to first-responder-in-chief on Monday, canceling scheduled campaign stops in Florida and Wisconsin and returning to Washington to monitor the storm and the government's response.

Rival Mitt Romney, who is running neck-and-neck with Obama in the polls, also canceled his campaign appearances, "out of sensitivity for the millions of Americans in the path of Hurricane Sandy," his campaign said.

BLANKETS, GENERATORS IN PLACE

The president has declared emergencies in at least eight eastern states and the District of Columbia.

During a conference call with reporters on Monday, Fugate, who wears a goatee and glasses and speaks with a Florida drawl, rattled off an extensive list of the administration's preparations, including getting bottled water, meals, blankets and generators in place. He said the disaster relief fund held $3.6 billion.

"As the storm's coming ashore, we'll be rapidly moving into response operations, as soon as weather conditions permit," he said.

The aggressive response, and the image of a fully engaged commander-in-chief, gives Obama yet another chance to contrast his efforts with the response to Hurricane Katrina.

Former President Bush's FEMA director Michael Brown, a lawyer who owed his job to political connections, resigned shortly after it became clear the government's reaction to the devastating storm was inadequate and poorly planned.

Bush's remark, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job," made even as New Orleans residents fled to higher ground to avoid onrushing waters, became a catch-phrase that tarred the Bush presidency with an image of cronyism and still evokes bitter memories.

Fugate told reporters this summer that Katrina taught officials to be in place before the storms hit. Local officials have expressed gratitude to him for help with such delicate problems as how to search for remains.

In the thick of a close election, Obama's turn to crisis management may offer him a chance to rise above the fray of campaigning, a notion he tried to drive home at the briefing on Monday.

"The election will take care of itself next week," he said. "Right now, our No. 1 priority is to make sure that we are saving lives, that our search-and-rescue teams are going to be in place, that people are going to get food, the water, the shelter that they need in case of emergency, and that we respond as quickly as possible to get the economy back on track."

(Additional reporting by Susan Cornwell; Editing by Karey Wutkowski and Cynthia Osterman)

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