Romney looks to put Pennsylvania in play

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BOSTON, Nov. 2 (UPI) -- Hoping to expand the swing-state map, Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney stumps in traditionally blue Pennsylvania this weekend, his campaign said.

The Pennsylvania visit Sunday is part of the Romney campaign's strategy of reconfiguring the battleground map to include Pennsylvania, Michigan and Minnesota, where campaign strategists say polls indicate Romney picked up ground on President Obama, CNN reported Friday

A Franklin and Marshall College poll released Wednesday indicated Obama leads Romney 49 percent to 45 percent in the Keystone State.

The Romney campaign also announced GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan would visit Middletown, Pa., Saturday.

The Obama campaign called Romney's Pennsylvania trip an "act of desperation," CNN said.

"Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan are going all in Pennsylvania, following the lead of every Republican presidential candidate since 1992 who have made last ditch investments in the Keystone State," Obama campaign northeast regional press secretary Michael Czin said in a statement. "Not one of them carried the state."

Romney officials responded that Obama's re-election advisers were reacting from a "defensive crouch."

"We are looking at an expanded map, while the Obama campaign is pouring resources into states that were supposed to be safe for them," a Romney campaign official said. "I totally understand why Chicago is freaking out, but I just thought they'd be better at hiding it."