“President Obama’s reelection campaign continued to hammer Mitt Romney on Sunday on the length of his tenure at Bain Capital and his limited disclosure on tax returns, while Romney’s side called the Democrats’ attacks an attempt to distract voters from the weak economy,” the Boston Globe writes. “The Bain controversy ignited after the Globe reported Thursday that Securities and Exchange Commission filings and other documents from Massachusetts showed Romney remained the sole owner and chief executive of the private equity firm until 2002. Those filings appeared to conflict with statements the presumptive Republican presidential nominee made on his financial disclosure form submitted last month. On that form, Romney said that since Feb. 11, 1999 — the date he took charge of the Salt Lake City Olympics — he ‘has not had any active role with any Bain Capital entity and has not been involved in the operations of any Bain Capital entity in any way.’”
“About 89 percent of Obama’s ads in the 14-day period ended July 9 carried an anti-Romney message and 94 percent of Romney’s ads criticized Obama, according to New York-based Kantar Media’s CMAG, which tracks advertising. The Democratic president’s campaign ran more than twice as many negative spots as Romney during the period, 37,022 to 13,962, CMAG data show,” Bloomberg/BusinessWeek writes. “The negative ads underscore that Obama and Romney are sharpening their attacks 16 weeks before a Nov. 6 vote that national polls indicate will be close. Obama led Romney by 50 percent to 43 percent among registered voters in a survey taken June 28-July 9 by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press.”
AP’s Benac: “While a lack of specifics is something that voters bemoan about their candidates every presidential election, the vagueness of the 2012 race is even more pronounced as both campaigns spend more time arguing about past issues like Obama's health care law and Romney's private sector experience than on what they'd do in the future if elected.”
“A yearlong stalemate between Florida and Washington ended Saturday when the federal government gave the state access to a federal citizenship database, which the state will use to resume an election-year purge of noncitizen voters,” the Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald writes. “After repeatedly refusing, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security agreed to open its database to the Department of State, which oversees Florida's voter registration system. The state will now cross-check the names of Florida voters against a federal citizenship database known as SAVE, or Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements. It wasn't clear why Homeland Security changed course, and the department had no comment Saturday. But the reversal comes after a federal judge in Florida refused to halt purge efforts.”
The paper called it a “victory for Republican Gov. Rick Scott, who has said the purge is necessary to guarantee fair elections. Democrats and voter advocacy groups have criticized Scott for the action, saying it is aimed at Democratic-leaning voters in an election year. Some groups filed lawsuits to block it.”
“After 18 months as governor, Rick Scott remains personally unpopular with a majority of Floridians, according to a new Tampa Bay Times/Miami Herald/Bay News 9 poll,” Florida Today writes. “But despite voters’ displeasure with Scott, they strongly support his efforts to rid Florida’s voter rolls of non-citizens in this presidential election year.”
The Mason-Dixon poll found Scott with just a 40%/51% approval rating, and just a 29%/37% fav/unfav.
