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All eyes shift to Pennsylvania for election
John McCain’s campaign is airing TV commercials in Youngstown.
With the crucial Pennsylvania Democratic presidential primary just days away, former President Clinton was to speak today in New Castle.
Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, will visit the Youngstown area next week. His campaign also launched a television commercial Tuesday in targeted markets in Pennsylvania and Ohio, including Youngstown, on Mc- Cain’s economic agenda.
The Clinton public rally at 3:45 p.m. at New Castle Junior/Senior High School is among five stops the former president is making today on behalf of his wife, U.S. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., who is seeking her party’s presidential nomination.
The Clintons have campaigned throughout Pennsylvania, but this is the former president’s first visit to Lawrence County.
The Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea, visited Slippery Rock University last week.
The candidate hasn’t made a campaign stop in either Lawrence or Mercer counties.
U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., the other Democratic presidential candidate, also has been active in Pennsylvania, but he also hasn’t visited Lawrence or Mercer counties.
A Quinnipiac University Poll, released Tuesday, shows Clinton with a lead of 50 percent to 44 percent over Obama in Pennsylvania.
Those figures are unchanged from last week. Clinton had a double-digit lead in the poll last month.
There are 187 Democratic delegates in Pennsylvania.
Nationally, Obama has 1,638 delegates to 1,502 for Clinton, according to the Associated Press. A candidate needs 2,025 delegates to capture the Democratic nomination.
Capturing enough delegates isn’t an issue for McCain, R-Ariz., who’s already accomplished that goal.
While Obama and Clinton will sweat it out during the Pennsylvania Democratic primary on Tuesday, McCain is scheduled to be in the Youngstown area that day.
The visit is part of McCain’s “Time for Action” tour in which he’ll make stops in locations Republicans typically don’t visit.
McCain’s campaign confirmed the Tuesday visit but is still working on the time and location.
Also, McCain’s campaign started airing a television commercial Tuesday on Youngstown stations called “Ignite.”
The commercial is airing in “select, targeted markets in Ohio and Pennsylvania,” according to his campaign.
The script reads: “As president, John McCain will take the best ideas from both parties to spur innovation, invest in people and create jobs. Taxes: simpler, fairer. Energy: cleaner, cheaper. Health care: portable and affordable. Workers retrained, mortgage debt restructured, education transformed. Initiatives that will unite us and ignite our economy. Big ideas for serious problems. John McCain.”
skolnick@vindy.com