Mayor Alicia Aguirre joined a conference call Monday with other Democratic elected officials to highlight why they believe presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney will stifle the progress California has made.
Under the electoral college system, California’s 55 votes out of the total 538 votes have historically gone to the Democratic presidential nominee, but Democrats Aguirre, Representative Barbara Lee (D-Oakland), and Somerville, Massachusetts Mayor Joe Curtatone made one last push for President Obama the day before the California primary on June 5.
“We’re seeing a turnaround here in Redwood City as the Peninsula hub of Silicon Valley,” Aguirre said. “We’ve come too far to let Romney economics set us back.”
Former Governor Romney held at the back in March.
Aguirre pointed to statistics showing that the nation emerged from a recession in November 2001, but Massachusetts, when Romney served as governor, consistently lagged six months behind the recovery. Every year, the state trailed the rest of the country, she said.
Mayor Curtatone said that Somerville was similar to Redwood City in size and proximity to world-class universities and was experiencing a similar recovery.
Somerville has experienced 27 straight months of job creation, Curtatone said, and he doesn’t want to return to a time when Massachusetts lost 40,000 manufacturing jobs and 220,000 residents left the state.
“They couldn’t see a future for themselves here,” Curtatone said. “But now we are on the right track with [current] Governor Deval Patrick.”
Representative Lee used a common Democratic attack against Republicans, stating that Romney’s policies undermined security for the middle class and benefited a few.
“We shouldn’t let Wall Street and large corporations lead us to recovery,” she said.
Obama Turning Negative?
Several media outlets, like the Christian Science Monitor and US News & World Report, have reported an increase in President Obama’s negative campaign ads against Romney.
However, Lee said that the voter optimism and hope in Obama has not subsided.
“When you communicate with voters, they are very inspired,” Lee said.
After having introduced President Obama at in the last month, Aguirre said she saw for Obama’s campaign.
“President Obama’s message here was very strong,” Aguirre said. “And we’re all fired up.”
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