Since last week’s Presidential debate, numerous polls have shown a big swing toward GOP candidate Mitt Romney. WYSO’s Jerry Kenney spoke with the Communication Directors for both the National Republican and Democratic Committees to get their reaction.
According to Pew Research Center’s presidential election polling, 66% of registered voters say Romney did the better job in last Wednesday’s debate, compared with just 20% who say the President did better. Governor Romney has also drawn even with Mr. Obama in the presidential race among registered voters (46% to 46%) after trailing by nine points
Catherine Gatewood is the RNC Communications Director. She says the highly watched debate clarified Mitt Romney for viewers, saying "I think they've had an idea of who he is and what he was talking about, but I think the debate showed that he was a leader and he was ready to defend what he was right, and that he had a plan to turn our economy around. He has real pro-growth policies, and he laid all that out."
Gatewood also credits the RNC’s so-called Ground-game in swing states like Ohio for the surge of support, adding, "We've reached over four and a half million voters at this point; we started in the spring. We've knocked over 1 million doors, and made over 3 million phone calls, and last week alone we made 600,000 contacts.
With three weeks left until the election, DNC Communication Director, Brad Woodhouse says the narrowing polls were expected, but the election is still fluid.
He contends, "The President had leads in some battleground states that were bigger than his margin of victory in 2008. That was not something that was sustainable; we had the wind at our back obviously. This is not the same as 2008, but this election is far from over."
The candidates are concentrating heavily on swing- states like Ohio. Last night the President spoke to a crowd on the Ohio University Campus and Governor Romney – in Cuyahoga Falls last night – moves on to Sidney tonight for an event at the Shelby County Fairgrounds.
