Friday, June 1, 2012

THE RACE: Massachusetts is campaign target again

President Barack Obama speaks at a Jewish American Heritage Month reception in the East Room at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, May 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President Barack Obama speaks at a Jewish American Heritage Month reception in the East Room at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, May 30, 2012. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

FILE - In this May 29, 2012 file photo, epublican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks in Las Vegas. President Barack Obama's campaign was opening a new critique of Mitt Romney's record on Wednesday, focusing attention on the Republican nominee's economic agenda while he served as governor of Massachusetts. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 16, 2010 file photo, President Barack Obama shakes hands with former President George W. Bush, in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington. President Barack Obama frequently blames President George W. Bush for America's shaky economy, high unemployment and foreign policy woes. But he's sure to change his tune on Thursday when Bush comes back to the White House in a rare limelight moment, The man who led the country for eight tumultuous years will have his portrait hung and Obama will be there applauding. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Once again, Massachusetts is in the cross hairs of a presidential race.

The Obama campaign this week pounced on Mitt Romney's record as governor of Massachusetts from 2003-2007 after first attacking his private-equity business career.

Obama strategist David Axelrod was in Boston, where Romney's campaign is headquartered, on Thursday to slam Romney's record as governor.

"Romney economics didn't work then and it won't work now," he told a gathering. At one point a group of Romney supporters drowned him out.

Haven't we seen this movie before?

The attacks reprise assaults lobbed earlier this year by Romney's Republican challengers, which were basically reruns of charges aired in 2008, the first time Romney ran for president.

Massachusetts has produced more than its share of presidential contenders.

Sen. John F. Kennedy, D-Mass., was elected president in 1960. Brother Robert Kennedy, who was raised in Massachusetts but later represented New York in the Senate, was seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968 when assassinated.

A third Kennedy brother, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., tried to wrest the Democratic nomination from President Jimmy Carter in 1980.

Massachusetts-born George H.W. Bush attacked Massachusetts tax-and-spend liberals ? his campaign called the state "Taxachusetts" ? in his 1988 victory over Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis.

Bush's oldest son, President George W. Bush, used some of the same arguments in 2004 re-election contest against Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass, suggesting he was far left of most Americans.

The late Paul Tsongas, who also represented Massachusetts for a while in the Senate, ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992.

When Romney was elected in 2002, the state was in the midst of a deep recession.

Romney claims his policies helped end it. The Obama campaign claims he made things worse.

Sort of the same thing Romney is claiming Obama has done to the U.S. economy.

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Follow Tom Raum on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tomraum. For more AP political coverage, look for the 2012 Presidential Race in AP Mobile's Big Stories section. Also follow https://twitter.com/APCampaign and AP journalists covering the campaign: https://twitter.com/AP/ap-campaign-2012

Associated Press

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