Romney Making a Serious Play For PA – Paul Ryan Stumps In Moon Township – John Bolton to Hold Townhall in Pittsburgh – RNC Sending in Reinforcements (Video)

Lake Fong/Post-Gazette

The Washington Post reported that Ryan spoke before about 800 supporters, many of whom didn’t even know about the event until Friday night. His speech focused, naturally on Obama’s “war on coal”:

MOON TOWNSHIP, Pa. — Stoking speculation about whether Republicans may seek to make an 11th-hour play in this long-Democratic state, GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan on Saturday headlined a brief, hastily scheduled rally in an airport hangar here on his way to an event in eastern Ohio.

Addressing an enthusiastic group of about 800 supporters, many of whom got word of the rally only on Friday night, Ryan told the crowd that President Obama is waging a “war on coal” and cast the decision facing the country as one that will have consequences beyond the next four years.

“This is not just a paycheck election,” said Ryan, who wore a red-and-black jacket. “This is not just an election about growing the economy or about giving our kids a debt-free nation. This is about the meaning of America.”

The stop is only Ryan’s second in Pennsylvania since he became Mitt Romney’s running mate in August. His last visit to the Keystone State was on Aug. 21, when he held rallies in Carnegie and West Chester and raised campaign cash in Philadelphia.

Via ABC News:

“If he’s reelected we know exactly what the next four years will look like,” Ryan said. “We’ll have more of the same failed policies. More taxes, more spending, more debts, and four more years of these disastrous energy policies. Look, gas prices are more than double what they were four years ago, who knows what they’re going to be if he got four more years.”
Ryan often hits his Democratic opponents on their energy policy, but his remarks Saturday were more pointed, accusing the president of employing policies that would both prevent getting “people back to work and lower(ing) our energy prices.”
“He’ll keep his war on coal going,” Ryan said of Obama. “Over a hundred coal plants are scheduled to close costing us thousands of jobs…not only do these policies cost us jobs, not only do they mean that American energy dollars go to the Middle East they are keeping us from having a boon, they are keeping us from having jobs, they are keeping us from making our pay checks stretch farther.
He ended the attack by assuring the enthusiastic group of supporters his ticket would be victorious, noting Pennsylvania would help them get there.
“The good news is none of that’s going to happen because we’re going to win this election and we’re going to turn back on American energy,” Ryan said.

Battleground Watch reports: Mitt Romney’s Campaign, RNC Have 60+ Staffers In Pennsyvania, Planning More:

Now the official reinforcements are getting sent in:

The Romney campaign and the Republican National Committee are planning to send more than 60 staffers to Pennsylvania for the closing two weeks of the presidential election, a RNC official told The Huffington Post. The move is the clearest sign to date that Republicans view the Keystone State as in play this November, though it’s not entirely clear whether the staffing is being done as a head-fake for Democrats or out of general electoral optimism. GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s campaign had previously moved its Pennsylvania communications director to Virginia. That communications director was recently caught tweeting from Virginia even as vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan was appearing at a Pittsburgh-area rally.

Addendum: This move supplements the Old Line Staters (that’s Maryland for you out-of-towners) who are there already:

“In my opinion, any active Republican not currently working on a local campaign should be heading to Virginia or Pennsylvania,” said Chris Cavey, a longtime GOP leader in Maryland who is vice chair of Romney’s state campaign. “When it’s within the margin of error, you can’t say which door or set of doors … or which phone call it was that made the difference.” Both campaigns are exporting hundreds of Maryland volunteers to neighboring states each weekend. They travel on buses or carpool into critical precincts. They knock on doors, hand out campaign literature and staff telephone banks. Sometimes they are waved off by voters weary of the attention that living in a political battleground brings. Occasionally, initial encounters between strangers spark conversations that continue for weeks. With 16 days to go before the Nov. 6 election, such scenes are playing out across the country. In Alabama — where voters last chose a Democratic candidate for president in 1976 — the state Republican Party is organizing bus trips to Ohio and Florida, a spokeswoman said.

Also – Romney Campaign Town Hall Town Hall Event with John Bolton in Pittsburgh Tuesday (Oct 23) 8pm:

First Paul Ryan, now Conservative hero John Bolton? Something’s happening in Pennsylvania …

You’re Invited to a Town Hall Event with Ambassador John Bolton, Former US Ambassador to the United Nations

When: Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012

Doors Open 7:00 PM | Event Begins 8:00 PM

Where: Rashid Auditorium, 4th Floor, Hillman Center for Future-Generation Technologies, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue in Pittsburgh, PA 15213

UPDATE:

Americans For Prosperity comes through with more reinforcements: AFP plans to send five busloads of conservatives from New Jersey, New York and Maryland to fortify its ground game in Pennsylvania.

ROLL Call: Conservative Nonprofit Dispatches Volunteers to Canvass Battleground States:

This weekend, the powerful nonprofit, founded and funded by billionaire David Koch, is sending 160 Oklahoma activists to help mobilize voters in Colorado. Meanwhile, 180 canvassers from Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Oregon and California will converge on Nevada, another key swing state in the presidential race.

The deployments mark the final stage of a $30 million effort to oust President Barack Obama and Democratic Senators, relying almost exclusively on issue advocacy advertisements, direct mail and other get-out-the-vote efforts.

Two weeks from now, AFP plans to send five busloads of conservatives from New Jersey, New York and Maryland to fortify its ground game in Pennsylvania. The group’s Georgia chapter has a crew of 200 lined up for Florida. Maryland also will send a team of 40 activists to neighboring Virginia during two separate weekend bus-ins. The weekend before the elections, the Arkansas state chapter expects to send two buses to the crucial battleground of Ohio.

Linked by Doug Ross, thanks!