WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney and his new running mate, Paul Ryan, are making an unexpected appearance together Monday in New Hampshire, holding a joint town hall meeting in Manchester.
The newly-minted GOP duo will reunite eight days after they parted ways with no plans to appear together until the Republican National Convention in Tampa, according to the campaign.
The town hall meeting, in a location not yet announced, will come two days after President Obama campaigns in the Granite State. Obama plans to make stops at Windham High School Saturday morning and Rochester Commons in the afternoon.
Although New Hampshire has only four electoral votes to award, it is expected to be a focal point for both campaigns.
It will be Ryan’s first prominent trip to New Hampshire and will offer voters a close-up look at the new nominee. The Romney campaign had initially planned to announce Ryan as the vice presidential nominee in the state last Friday, but a memorial service in Ryan’s Wisconsin congressional district that day forced them to stage the announcement in Norfolk, Va., on Saturday.
MATT VISER
Ex-Obama supporter to talk at Republican convention
Former Alabama representative Artur Davis, the ex-Democrat who seconded President Obama’s nomination at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, will speak at this month’s Republican National Convention in support of Mitt Romney.
Davis said he will represent millions of disillusioned Americans who expected more from a president who campaigned on hope and change.
“President Obama — Senator Obama — ran on two broad themes,” Davis told the Washington Post. “One of those broad themes was reunifying this country. And another broad theme was turning this economy around. . . . I’ll certainly be talking about those two failures.”
Davis served in the House from 2003 to 2011 and was an early Obama backer. During his address to the Democratic National Convention in 2008, he said Obama’s election would bring the country closer to becoming “a place where all of the things that may hold you back pose no permanent barriers, where our destiny is what our God and our dreams determine it to be.”
In May, Davis announced he was changing parties to become a Republican.
Other GOP convention speakers announced Thursday included some of the politicians who were considered possible running mates for Romney: Senator Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, and Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell.
CALLUM BORCHERS
Challengers of voter ID law in Pennsylvania file appeal
HARRISBURG, Pa. — Strategies will shift as the first legal battle over Pennsylvania’s new law requiring voters to show valid photo identification heads to the state Supreme Court.
The law’s Republican backers and, they say, the integrity of the Nov. 6 presidential election were the winners of Wednesday’s decision by a state appellate judge to reject an injunction that would have halted the law from taking effect in November, as part of a wider challenge to its constitutionality.
About a dozen rights groups and registered voters filed an appeal Thursday. Democrats say the law will trample the right to vote for countless people. The GOP-penned law, signed by Republican Governor Tom Corbett in March and opposed by every Democratic lawmaker, has ignited a furious debate over voting rights in Pennsylvania, which is poised to play a starring role in deciding the presidential contest.
Lawyers are asking the state’s highest court for a speedy review of the appeal, requesting that oral arguments be scheduled during the court’s session in Philadelphia the week of Sept. 10.
At the state Supreme Court, votes by four justices would be needed to overturn Commonwealth Court Judge Robert Simpson’s ruling. The high court is currently split between three Republicans and three Democrats.
A key focus on appeal is likely to be Simpson’s decision to give strong deference to the government, rather than put a heavier legal burden on it to justify a law that opponents say infringes on a constitutional right.
ASSOCIATED PRESS