TOLEDO, Ohio, Feb. 29 (UPI) -- Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, seeking to build on his primary wins in Michigan and Arizona, sought the blue-collar vote in Ohio Wednesday.
The former Massachusetts governor rallied voters at a fence-post factory in Toledo with the aim of encroaching on rival Rick Santorum's working-class appeal, The Columbus Dispatch reported.
Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, led Romney by as many as 11 points in recent Ohio polls, but Romney is closing in and is looking more and more like the clear front-runner heading into Ohio's March 6 primary election, the newspaper said.
Romney Wednesday announced the formation of Ohio Manufacturers for Romney, led by state Rep. Ross McGregor, R-Springfield.
"The people who said the economy and jobs were their No. 1 issue, they voted for me overwhelmingly, and that's one of the reasons I'm running," Romney told about 200 supporters at the American Posts plant.
"Hopefully you're seeing signs of improvement, not because of [President Obama] but in spite of him," Romney said. "Every single policy he's put in place made it harder for businesses to grow."
"Ohioans know that the president took immediate action to address the economic crisis, and because of it we have seen 23 straight months of job creation," Obama campaign spokesman Frank Benenati retorted. "Ironically, today Mitt Romney is in a city where one of the leading employers is the auto industry, which would not exist in this country if Romney had his way."
In November 2008, Romney penned an op-ed piece in The New York Times titled "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt." Polls now indicate a majority of Americans believe the Obama administration did the right thing in bailing out the American auto industry.
