Earlier this month, Mitt Romney was welcomed for a campaign event at the Century Mine in Beallsville, Ohio, by hundreds of coal workers and their families. Now many of the mine’s workers are saying they were forced to give up a day-worth of pay to attend the event, and they feared they might be fired if they didn’t, according to local news radio WWVA.
The claims have been mostly denied by Rob Moore, Chief Financial Officer of Murray Energy Company, which owns the mine. He acknowledges that workers weren’t paid that day but says no one was made to attend the event. Well, kind of.
“Our managers communicated to our workforce that the attendance at the Romney event was mandatory, but no one was forced to attend,” he told local news radio WWVA, which has received several emails from workers claiming that the company records names of workers that don’t attend those types of events.
The company’s interest in having its employees show support for Romney may be a result of its CEO’s close ties with the presumptive Republican nominee. In May, Romney teamed up with Murray’s CEO Bob Murray for a fundraising event in West Virginia. And Murray’s made no secret of his support for the Republican party,previously backing Rick Perry.
While it’s possible that there’s a side to the story we aren’t hearing, this certainly can’t be the type of publicity that Team Romney and Murray Energy Company are looking for.
It’s official: The Republicans nominate Mitt Romney for President.
All nominating processes should be Gangnam Style from here on out.
Romney formally secures Republican presidential nomination
CNN: New Jersey cast the votes that put Mitt Romney over the top to win the Republican nomination at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Florida.
Follow updates from the convention on BreakingNews.com.
Photo via CNN
“Over the top.” For people already sick of the 2012 race, that has more than one meaning.
Gov. Chris Christie wasn’t willing to give up the New Jersey statehouse to be Mitt Romney’s running mate because he doubted they’d win, The Post has learned.
Romney’s top aides had demanded Christie step down as the state’s chief executive because if he didn’t, strict pay-to-play laws would have restricted the nation’s largest banks from donating to the campaign — since those banks do business with New Jersey.
But Christie adamantly refused to sacrifice his post, believing that being Romney’s running mate wasn’t worth the gamble.
“[Christie] felt, at one point, that [President] Obama could lose this. And, look, there still is that chance. But he knows, right now, you have to say it’s unlikely,” one source said.
Did Christie, who is making the keynote speech at this week’s Republican National Convention, make the right move?
» Not making an appearance? Joe Biden: Days after the Democratic vice president scheduled a politically-unprecedented visit to Tampa to coincide with the other party’s convention, he cancelled it “due to disaster preparedness and local security concerns” regarding the potentially-damaging Hurricane Isaac, according to the Obama campaign. The convention is still on despite the oncoming hurricane, by the way.
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Mitt Romney’s Tumblr has never reblogged anyone (except Romney Response, which is paid for by Romney for President, Inc.) They certainly haven’t reblogged one of my GIFs.
Today, the Chicago Young Republicans posted a recruitment video on YouTube that’s also a parody of “Call Me Maybe.” This will probably go viral. A few Chicagoans will probably sign-up to make phone calls for Romney because of the video.
Maybe this GIF of the CJR’s dancing with Romney’s book could be the Romney campaign’s first legitimate reblog?
We bet a $20 donation to the Homicide Watch Kickstarter that Barack Obama’s Tumblr reblogs this first. That’s a challenge, guys.
No response yet: Hey, Mitt and Barack, look at this!
At 10:30 on Monday night, Ann Romney is scheduled to take the stage at the Republican National Convention, in Act 1 of her husband’s four-day introduction to the nation. But tens of millions of people will not be able to watch.
CBS plans instead to show a rerun of “Hawaii Five-O,” its hit police series. Viewers of NBC will see a new episode of “Grimm,” about a homicide detective with the supernatural ability to sense evil. And ABC plans to show “Castle,” a series about a best-selling mystery novelist who helps solve crimes.
Misplaced priorities, or is this speech not that big a deal?
The center’s tracking map shows the system crossing Haiti as a hurricane on Aug. 25 and striking Cuba the next day before arriving at the edge of Florida Keys early on Aug. 27. A hurricane churning over Florida next week may coincide with the Republican National Convention, at which the party will officially nominate Mitt Romney as its candidate for president. The event is scheduled for Aug. 27 to Aug. 30 in Tampa, Florida.
“It would take ’perfect storm’ sort of conditions to all fall in place” for the system to reach Tampa as a hurricane during the convention, Jeff Masters, co-founder of Weather Underground in Ann Arbor, Michigan, said on his blog. “That is one of the possibilities.”
Would it be a fluke or harbinger?
» The party is to the right of their top dog on this one – though Mitt Romney’s political positions on abortion have been rather fluid over the long haul of his political career, the campaign’s most recent statement is that his administration would not oppose abortion, in cases in which the woman is pregnant due to an act of rape or incest. The platform committee is helmed by Governor Bob McDonnell, former VP hopeful and Romney surrogate, and is tasked with adopting the party’s official policy positions, in advance of the GOP convention in Tampa.
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Dr. Willke is a leading voice within the pro-life community and will be an important surrogate for Governor Romney’s pro-life and pro-family agenda.A statement from the 2008 Mitt Romney presidential campaign • Lauding the endorsement of Mitt Romney by Dr. Jack Willke, the former president of the U.S. National Right to Life Committee, and a vocal advocate of a certain theory about rape and pregnancy that got Rep. Todd Akin in hot water this week. Subsequent to Akin’s big fail on reproductive biology, the Romney campaign of 2012 has gone to great pains distancing itself from the Missouri congressman – Romney himself turned up the heat in the days following the remarks, condemning Akin and urging him to withdraw from his Senate race. As the quote above illustrates, however, the Romney campaign was undeniably pleased to receive the endorsement of Dr. Willkes four years ago, who pioneered his belief that rape victims rarely become pregnant in a book all the way back in 1971. source (via • follow)
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Mitt Romney’s Tumblr has never reblogged anyone (except Romney Response, which is paid for by Romney for President, Inc.) They certainly haven’t reblogged one of my GIFs.
Today, the Chicago Young Republicans posted a recruitment video on YouTube that’s also a parody of “Call Me Maybe.” This will probably go viral. A few Chicagoans will probably sign-up to make phone calls for Romney because of the video.
Maybe this GIF of the CJR’s dancing with Romney’s book could be the Romney campaign’s first legitimate reblog?
We bet a $20 donation to the Homicide Watch Kickstarter that Barack Obama’s Tumblr reblogs this first. That’s a challenge, guys.
Report: Romney to release 2011 tax return by Oct. 15
Reuters: A senior campaign adviser said Monday that Mitt Romney will release his 2011 tax return by October 15.
“Romney, a former private equity executive who is one of the richest men ever to run for president, has come under pressure for months from the Obama campaign to release more years of tax returns.
He has released his 2010 tax return and estimates for 2011 but does not plan to reveal more years of returns. In April, he requested an extension from the Internal Revenue Service to file his 2011 tax forms, while estimating his tax liability at $3.2 million for last year.”
Photo: Romney appears at a campaign rally in Ohio on Aug. 14 (Reuters/Shannon Stapleton)
The Romney Plan: Release the tax return as close as possible to the election to minimize fallout, but maximize speculation.
» What “bounce”? And, as it turns out, Romney’s pick of Ryan didn’t exactly give him a desired jump in the polls. Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight puts it like so: “This is a below-average ‘bounce’ for the selection of a vice presidential candidate. In past elections, the bounce has averaged in the neighborhood of 4 percentage points instead.” Silver has Romney well behind Obama in the electoral vote count.
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