Des Moin Register Reports: Mitt Romney’s first campaign advertisement in Iowa this election cycle – an oversized postcard – says he’s “the strongest Republican to beat Barack Obama and protect our values.”
So-called “values” voters – conservatives who oppose abortion and same-sex marriage – traditionally turn out in force in Iowa to cast the first votes in the GOP nominating process.
And Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, faces a serious threat from evangelical Christian activists in Iowa, some of whom are plotting ways to block him from winning the Jan. 3 caucuses.
Multiple versions of the Romney mailers, each with a different theme, are circulating in Iowa.
The post-Thanksgiving rush to the 2012 Iowa caucuses, just 37 days away, brought a wave of campaign pitches today.
“Today’s mail included pieces from Cain, Paul & Romney,” Iowa GOP Chairman Matt Strawn tweeted. “Plus a Bachmann autodial.”
Paul’s ad arrived in a thick manila envelope. Inside, a glossy “executive summary” explains the Texas congressman’s “plan to restore America.” Herman Cain, a retired businessman from Georgia, has been sending out letters talking up the strength of his campaign. And Michele Bachmann, a congresswoman from Minnesota, is campaigning in Iowa in person 13 days this month.
Romney, who has been in Iowa six days so far this year, says in his mailer: “It’s up to you, Iowa.”
The front has images of a white female voter’s hand and Obama with his feet up on a desk.
The flip-side has a photo of Romney in which he seems to have his head bowed in prayer.
The influential Family Leader has ruled out endorsing Romney. And representatives from that Christian advocacy group and others, including Iowa Right to Life and the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition, have been meeting to strategize how to keep a pack of Christian candidates from fragmenting the vote so much that Romney wins by default.
It was social conservatives who in 2008 knocked some of the wind knocked out of Romney’s presidential bid by making a last-minute surprise push for former Baptist minister Mike Huckabee.
