Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney campaigned in southeast Michigan on Tuesday. According to the Macomb Daily, the former governor of Massachusetts held an invitation-only town hall meeting at factory in Shelby Township, about 10 miles from Romney's hometown in Bloomfield. Romney spoke in favor of some pending, hotly contested right-to-work legislation in Michigan, says Michigan Radio.
Here are details about how the Republican campaign is progressing in Michigan.
* Romney, who was raised in Michigan and his father is a former governor of the state, has been the front-runner in the state for most of the campaign. Recently, several polls show Rick Santorum, a former Pennsylvania senator, moved past him.
* Speaking at Eagle Manufacturing near the Palazzo Grande, where Santorum held a rally Friday, Romney touched on Michigan's high unemployment. He assured people =he's got what it takes to get people working again. "People here can have confidence that the promise of America -- and that is hard work and education -- will be the promise of prosperity and security, that that promise is one that we will live and we will fulfill," quotes Michigan Radio.
* About the right-to-work legislation, Romney said no worker should have to be forced to join a union. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, who endorses Romney, says right-to-work legislation isn't right for the state.
* In a speech in a Grand Rapids office furniture warehouse last week, Romney blamed organized labor for causing Michigan's auto industry to get into debt and require a federal bailout, says the Detroit News. "I've taken on union bosses before and I'm happy to take them on again. I sure won't give in to the UAW," Romney said.
* Romney got into a fracas last week in Farmington Hills with members of a Detroit Free Press editorial board about his 2008 New York Times article. Romney had faulted President Barack Obama's auto industry bailout in his "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" op-ed. Romney assured Michiganders he would not have let automakers fold and said it was the unions he objected, not the auto industry in general.
Marilisa Kinney Sachteleben writes about people, places, events and issues in her home state of "Pure Michigan."
